March 7, 2008:
Her sister's renaissance.
Quits smoking.
Loses weight.
Starts exercising.
Superficially it's for the love of a good man.
At a deeper level it's the result of her burgeoning independence from her abusive sibling.
The abuse still exists, of course.
But it's lost something of the power she herself invested it with.
The greater the independence she achieves, the less harm it does.
Naturally there's a struggle.
The dominator fights back.
Maybe something like a spider who senses that her trapped fly is being rescued from outside.
So that she lashes out violently at her brother-in-law, wearing him down, driving him away.
Who knows what will happen.
Her sister deserves this awakening.
There is no better person in the world.
But this abuser is exceptionally skilled, and her train wreck of a family has no history of standing up to her.