Old Friends and Old Problems

A friend of mine from graduate school was in town this weekend. She decided to have a girly weekend with her daughter. I haven't seen her in years, but I remembered all of the problems she had. She was the only one of our "group" that was married in graduate school. Her husband seemed like the nicest guy, and they just seemed to make a great couple. One night, all of the girls had gone out bar hopping, and she was with us. We all ended up at one person's house, and we spent the night. My friend had gotten really drunk, and she started to cry. She told us that her husband beat her, and she showed us where he had hit her in the back with a wine bottle. I was shocked. Of course, we all told her to leave him. This didn't happen. Two of my friends and I went to check on her one night, and we couldn't find her. We got really worried because all of the lights were on in the house, and the car was there. Something didn't seem right. We called the police. The police came out, and our friend came out of the house with her husband. There really wasn't anything the police could do because she refused to talk to them. A year later, she got pregnant. I never acted like her husband wasn't beating her, but I also didn't go away. I think that's what he wanted us all to do, but none of us did. She would insist on bringing him places with us, and we would just grin and bear it. I think she needed us as friends more than he needed to be "frozen out" of our group. So, they ended up moving over 6 hours away, and I would keep up with her through email. She never really sounded happy. He cheated on her through the years. The latest was with the church secretary. He's a deacon, of course. The good thing is that something seemed different about her this weekend. I asked her if everything was ok, and she just said that she was tired of it. She said that for the first time ever she had opened her own bank account, and she has gone back to school. She seemed stronger, but she also seemed wore out. Her daughter seems to be well-adjusted and smart. I always worried that he would hurt her too. It's so hard to see a friend in this position. There really isn't anything I can do to help, but just keep in touch. I'm thinking of planning a road trip with another girlfriend of ours from graduate school. Maybe we just need to bust up in there and show him that we are still very much connected to her. I just don't know.