I had never raised my voice to my husband, and I didn’t think I ever would.
My family had a firm belief that women respected the men, and treated them special. I respected my husband, and I treated him like he was special, but I felt I had the right to be treated the same way. Why should he be able to disrespect me and want me only for the work I could do and the children I bore? He walked into our house one afternoon, and I told him I wanted a whole-home air purification system. He laid the paper on the table and told me we had a furnace and a window air conditioning unit. That was more than most people had. Our daughter had asthma, and I was told a whole home air purification system could help her. He laughed and said I was lucky I had it as well as I did, and I needed to mind my manners. I prepared his dinner without another word, but after the kids were in bed, I was going to approach him again. He was relaxing in front of the television set when I walked in and turned it off. I told him we needed to talk about the whole home air purification system. I demanded we have a whole home air purification system installed when he got paid. After telling me how expensive it was, I shrugged. He either had central HVAC and a whole air purification system installed, or I was taking the kids and moving somewhere he would never find me. He called the HVAC company the next morning.