Skip had been raised in a home where partying, drinking, crude jokes, and foul language were the norm. He didn’t mind if Robin was a Christian, but he did not intend to change his life. To his way of thinking, she knew what he was like when she married him and shouldn’t expect anything else.

After they married, Skip joined the U.S. Navy and his drinking escalated, especially when he was with the other recruits. From home Robin knew the drinking was getting out of hand, but could do nothing about it.

The heavy drinking continued when Skip came home. Shortly arriving home the physical abuse began. Robin knew the emergency room well, and they knew her. Her family tried to intervene, but she would not listen to any reasoning or pleading. More than once her parents left her house in tears.

One Saturday night Skip was more drunk than usual. Standing beside the bed, he raised his fist; on the ring finger of that fist was the huge Navy ring that was Skip’s pride and joy. Skip hit Robin in the eye. The ring left a gash on her eyebrow. Immediately Skip passed out on the bed.

Robin tried to stop the bleeding, but it was clear stitches would be required. Her eye was swollen shut making her unable to drive herself. She called her parents and asked them to take her to the ER. This time her siblings met them there. The entire family begged, pleaded, reasoned, and cried in an attempt to get her to leave Skip. She refused, stating that God would work in his life.

Her family took her home, left crying, and Robin went to bed about 3:00 a.m. Later that morning, Skip woke, rolled over and saw Robin lying beside him with stitches and a bandage covering her eye. He did not remember hitting her, but he knew what had happened. He thought to himself,