Dear Editor,
Please publish this letter from me. You will see why I can’t allow my name to be published, but my story is the story of many other women in similar circumstances, and I have called no names.
Here it is:
I am almost 95% positive that after reading this letter, there will be a lot of very opinionated responses – both negative and positive, conversations and maybe even a few friendly debates on this topic. I should be dead or probably knocking at death’s door, right now.
You may be wondering what debilitating illness or disease may be the culprit of my “looming death,” but after reading this letter from “The Other Woman,” you will understand where I am coming from. I have decided to write this letter with the hopes of finally muting the talkers and educating the ignorant.
In 2006, I became involved in a practice that is as old as time – I became the mistress to a married man! We had met on the Internet – sounds so cliché, I know – and after corresponding a few times via email, we decided to meet, for the first time, on a lunch date. It was innocent in the beginning (I know many would disagree), but after receiving an email from “Dr. Wife,” I told him that it would be best for us to end this before it even began. Well, as many of you already figured out, we did eventually start seeing each other, and the relationship grew from there.
When “Dr. Wife” found out, like most wives, she was livid and decided to attack my character. After a few verbal grenades were launched at me and my family, my house was then attacked. A few months into our extramarital affair, but before my house was attacked, I was the victim of a burglary. That was a very scary experience for me because, at the time of the burglary, I was at home, asleep with my children.
None of us was hurt, thank God, but after the stress of the experience, I got sick. It started with a burning sensation on the right side of my torso; I tried to ignore it at first, but then little blisters started forming on that side, then the burning then started on the left side.
I decided to visit a Health Center to find out what was happening to me; after answering some questions asked by the Cuban doctora who spoke little English, I was told that I had herpes zoster. Of course, like most Creoles who speak little Spanish, the only word I understood, was “herpes”.
With a look of sheer terror on my face, I asked “Herpes?”, and the doctora, with a beautiful smile on her face, said, “Si, herpes”.
After some back and forth with the same looks and words being repeated, my look of terror finally registered with her, and she motioned for me to wait while she stepped out. When she returned, an English speaking doctor was with her. After discussing my symptoms and inspecting my blisters. I learned that I indeed had herpes – herpes zoster, that is.
Well, needless to say that “Dr. Wife” found out, and her “rumor gun” now had ammunition; verbal shots that I had herpes, not herpes zoster, just herpes, the sexually transmitted disease, were being fired from her gun.
Many of you may be asking “what is herpes zoster?” It is NOT an STD! Herpes Zoster, aka shingles, is a painful, blistering skin rash due to the varicella-zoster virus, the virus that causes chickenpox. After you get chickenpox, the virus remains inactive (becomes dormant) in certain nerves in the body. Shingles occurs after the virus becomes active again in these nerves years later. In my case, it remained dormant for twenty years.
Six months into our affair, the married man moved out of “Dr.Wife’s” house, and has since been living with me.
You may be asking, “So what is it that’s killing you?”
Well, after moving out of her house, “Dr.Wife” has since been unrelenting with her attacks; since 2007, when he moved in with me, “Dr. Wife” has diagnosed me with HIV AIDS, herpes – the STD, and hepatitis – though I am not sure which if it’s A, B, C, or maybe even a combination of all three.
I have a quick question for the “other women” haters. Would you send your children to the other woman’s house, knowing she is preparing all the meals your children eat, if you were positive, or had just an inclination that she had any of the diseases mentioned?
I hear a resounding “NO”, from all of you; but my family all eat the meals that I have been and am still preparing.
I am not looking for any sympathy from anyone out there, but over the last 5½ years, I have been wrongfully accused by “Dr. Wife” of making a false report to police about her, making a false report to her boss, giving false information about myself, trying to kill her child, visiting her social email pages, and having affairs with other men, the latest being someone named Gosvisva.
Again, I am not looking for sympathy, but when will all the lies end, “Dr. Wife”? It’s been over five years; you were not the first wife to be cheated on, and you certainly aren’t the last.
But, like many wives, girlfriends and common-law wives, the “other woman” is always blamed for these affairs.
We are not to be blamed; we are not the ones in a relationship with you, but it’s understood that the husband and boyfriends are never held accountable for their participation in the affair.
However, I have been, still am, and will continue taking my verbal assaults, because I am a strong woman, and I refuse to allow any person, be it a man or woman, to commit me to a life of misery.
But don’t you think it’s high time to get over it and move on, “Dr. Wife”?
(Ed. NOTE: The names of the wife, husband and “other woman” have been withheld to protect the children from both families. Records have shown that the “other woman” is not HIV positive and has no STD of any kind.)