TOLLESBORO, Ky. - They say running's good for the heart. This might not be what they had in mind.
Here were Chuck and Diana Andrews, 11 years married, three children in tow, fugitives for love: running from their house, running from their town, fleeing the state, running from those who would keep them apart, from their old life, from their old ways - just so they could be together.
It was Valentine's Day.
Mad about each other
''We're getting the hell out of
Lewis County,'' Chuck said.
It's a strange story, this. The Andrewses are mad about each other. Diana wanted Chuck out of the house only a day or two so he could cool down after an argument, she said. She had no idea the restraining order would be in
effect for a year.
''We've lived very happily,'' she said. ''And, now, all of a sudden, all hell breaks loose, when I'm just trying to get him calmed down.''
If not for meddling neighbors, Diana never would have filed the domestic-violence petition, she said. But when she tried to have the court order dropped for Valentine's Day, she was told she'd have to wait. The judge only visits Lewis County on Tuesdays.
That was the last straw. ''This town has turned into our worst nightmare,'' Chuck said.
The Andrewses packed up Friday, picked up the kids from school and headed north to start a new life near Diana's parents in Canton, Ohio.
On Tuesday, they came back to Tollesboro for the day to see the judge. He dismissed the order.
''This little town,'' Chuck said, grunting. ''The ZIP code's e-i-e-i-o.''
How life got away
Chuck's angry. Diana's frustrated. They can't understand how life can get away from you like that.
Generally, there are good reasons. Spouse abuse is inexcusable to all but the victims. They're too generous with second chances. They need support. They need people to believe in them. They need the system to believe in them. They need quick and easy recourse.
Too many women are on the run alone. Most children who are homeless are that way because of domestic violence, said Julia Byrns Helwig, community development director for the Women's Crisis Center in Northern
Kentucky.
More than 6 million women are beaten each year. A woman is battered every 12 seconds.
But the thing about the Andrewses is, Chuck never threatened Diana or laid a hand on her. She wasn't even in the house with him when he did the things that prompted her to file for the restraining order.
A bad day
On Jan. 27 - the day after the Super Bowl - Chuck got up on the wrong side of the bed. He knocked some things off the dresser - accidentally, he said. Diana came home and saw the mess. They argued. Chuck left for work without kissing Diana goodbye.
Before she knew it, Diana had taken the advice of friends at the general store next door and filed a restraining order against her husband.
The domestic-violence petition bears out her version of events: ''Respondent threw something against the wall, causing damage to the wall; busted a vase; ripped up a stuffed toy and destroyed storage boxes.''
One of those boxes Chuck knocked off the dresser and trampled? A 3-year-old heart-shaped candy box. Empty.
''I save everything he gives me,'' Diana says.
Chuck Andrews lavished his wife with more Valentine's gifts this year. A contract driver for the U.S. Postal Service, he delivered truckloads of Valentines all week, too.
Legally, of course, he wasn't supposed to deliver even one of them to his own Valentine.
Rob Kaiser is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. His column appears on Sundays and Thursdays in The Kentucky Enquirer. He can be reached at 578-5584.