I was married to an abusive man, and everyone knew about it. Most people didn't find out because they saw the abuse for themselves. They found out because I wouldn't stop talking about it.

Although I made no move to leave the man who belittled me, cheated on me, and abused me physically, I made no effort to keep his behavior a secret. Maybe I found complaining therapeutic, or maybe I was hoping for rescue. What I got instead was unrestrained anger from a woman I barely knew, and her anger may have saved my life.

I worked at a local retail sporting goods store at the time. During lunch breaks, I often regaled my coworkers with stories about my marriage. No one was interested, but I couldn't help myself. I needed someone to talk to, and my hapless coworkers were my captive audience.

They largely sat silent and tried to eat their sandwiches and potato chips while avoiding making eye contact with me until one day, one woman decided not to remain silent anymore.

With a fury I have never seen matched to this day, she pushed her chair back from the table in the breakroom and commenced shouting at me. Her face grew scarlet as she yelled.

For one brief moment, I thought she was coming to my defense. I was wrong.

This woman, who may have been a coworker but who was also very much a stranger, stood straight up from her chair like it was on fire and started to yell. She screamed and cursed at the very top of her lungs while everyone else in the room sat and pretended to read the newspaper or check their text messages.

I can't remember every word she said, but one bit of wisdom definitely stood out from the rest. "If your husband beats you, leave him or shut up."

At that moment, her loud and furious diatribe sent me into a panic attack. My body went numb, and my lungs seemed to constrict. My heart raced. I couldn't get enough oxygen to my brain. I certainly couldn't open my mouth to speak, and I wouldn't have been able to find or form the words even if I could.

None of that mattered because she wouldn't stop screaming. I wouldn't have been able to squeeze a word in edgewise if I'd tried. So I did the next best thing. I started to cry.

As it turned out, my sobbing enraged this woman even more. Her shouting intensified, and I worried that she might hit me herself just to prove her point. When she was finally finished, she punched the breakroom table with both fists, tossed her uneaten lunch dramatically into the trashcan, and stormed from the room with a vigor I didn't know she possessed.

Not long after that day, I finally left my abuser for good. While I won't say my coworker's unsolicited advice was the reason why I left, it certainly did make an impression on me. It may even have saved my life. Explaining exactly how I found the strength to leave my ex-husband is complicated, but I don't know whether I would have done it without my coworker's blunt words:

"If your husband beats you, leave him or shut up."