Location: Alabama
I know that my sister could be in a better position if she were to leave him, but I don’t know where to point her for assistance.
For context, my sister is married to a disabled vet. He is fully disabled, and she has been a stay-at-home mom basically their entire marriage. They have 4 kids together, a variety of ages 6-16. He has been having an affair and giving almost all of their money to his affair partner.
She is convinced that if she leaves him, she won’t have anything, no one will help her, and she will be left homeless with her kids. I am positive he is financially abusing his entire family, and I have reason to believe he is physically and emotionally abusing them as well, but no proof, as I live several states away. I do know he has sold several things that belonged to other family members and even stole money from his kids to send to his affair partner.
I want to help her get into a better position, but I cannot support all of them myself long term. But I am positive that she would qualify for financial aid, and he would, at the very least, have to pay child support if she were to leave him. I am hoping that I can convince her to divorce him and move back to our hometown to get away from him, and especially to get her kids away from him.
I really have never been in this position and am not even sure where to get started or how to help her get some direction. She is sort of just shutting down. Apparently, she spent two days in bed, refusing to leave. I am going to try and go down there and see what I see and try to help my nephews out. But any recommendations on how I can help her get the ball rolling and where I could get started on helping her find out what kind of financial situation she would be in would be greatly appreciated.