Reporter Karen Smith talks to one grandmother who faces constant threats from her grandson and to a female victim who explains why it is so important to seek help as soon as possible.

It is beyond belief that a young man could pick up a machete and threaten to cut his grandmother into little pieces -- but it is happening here in Bermuda.

Complaints of domestic violence are on the rise on the Island and it is not only women who are battered or mentally tortured in their own homes.

Men and the elderly fall victim too, although many choose to suffer in silence.

Nancy, not her real name, has brought up two of her grandchildren due to circumstances beyond her control and out of love for her family.

Yet, after years of devotion, she now has a 22-year-old grandson who refuses to pay his way, takes money from her purse and doles out verbal abuse and threats on a daily basis.

The only saving grace is that so far he has never touched her, but 68-year-old Nancy, who is not married, knows only too well that if provoked, he will.

"I have brought up my grandson for most of his life and this is how he repays me -- there is no respect and thought for other people,'' said Nancy.

"He is nasty, verbally abusive and always threatens to get rid of me.

"I think he would definitely do something if he was provoked, but I don't show any fear and try to keep the situation calm all the time.

"Once he stood before me and told me that he would chop me up into pieces with a machete if I didn't stop banging on at him about getting a job.

"I later decided to get rid of the machete when he threw it at someone.

"But the sad thing is, I don't think I am alone. There are a lot of elderly grandparents like me who are taking abuse, physical and verbal.'' Nancy is a strong woman and the determined type, who strives to get on with her life. However, she has been forced to seek psychiatric counselling.

She said she has tried to talk to members of her family about the abuse, but feels they are not really interested in her plight.

The senior claims they are busy with their own lives and do not care about the activities of the 22-year-old grandson and the anguish he is causing.

She added: "I think mental abuse is as bad as physical abuse. Sometimes I wonder how much more I can take.

"I have tried to lock him out at night, but he comes home in the early hours and repeatedly bangs on the door, disturbing the street, so I let him in.

"There is nowhere for him to rent, so I feel I have to keep him here - I am over a barrell.

"I don't lie awake at night worrying about it, but it makes me unhappy and very wary. I shouldn't be threatened like that in my own home.

"What if one day he is provoked?'' Lawyer Susan Moore-Williams, of The Women's Resource Centre, urged Nancy to get in touch with the centre to explain her situation.

She said Nancy was not the only person suffering at the hands of family members and should seek help now.

Mrs Moore-Williams said: "Many cases of abuse start verbally, but they can escalate and become physical. This lady needs to get help - it is no good hoping that he won't be provoked. She should call the centre.'' After seven years in a destructive, abusive relationship, Jackie felt she had nowhere to turn -- except for the comfort of a bottle of pills.

With two young children, she had no wish to end her life, but could see no other way out of her situation than to overdose.

"It was a cry for help and an attempt to get away from him,'' said the 44-year-old.

"I did not mean to kill myself, but I was so desperate, I thought that if I made myself ill by taking an overdose, I would be admitted to the hospital and able to escape him.

"The sad thing is, he was allowed to spend almost all of the night in the hospital room with me, which wasn't what I had intended.'' Jackie has since walked away from the father of her two children, but it was no easy task.

And although she is happy now in a new relationship, she admitted that even after she left, the challenges and emotional turmoil continued.

The years of fear and anguish had diminished her self-esteem and she felt totally alone.

Jackie, not her real name, contacted The Royal Gazette yesterday after deciding to tell her story in the hope that it would help someone else.

She said: "In the beginning my ex-boyfriend was a honey and would do anything for me, but what I didn't realise was that he was shrinking my world, so I had to rely on him. I began to lose my friends and became more distant from my family and before long the life I had known began to change.

"At first there was just a lot of verbal abuse, but it got worse and worse.

No matter what I did, I couldn't please him and in the end I knew I had to get out.'' Things got so bad, her boyfriend tried to grapple her to the floor during a serious argument while she was eight months pregnant.

Looking back, she believes the reason her ex-boyfriend was brutal to her was because he had been physically abused by his own father as a child.

And she believes without help he will continue.

"Once I made the decision to get out, I stuck to it, but it meant I had to barricade myself in the bedroom,'' she said. "It was very frightening thinking that I was going to be on my own, not least because I had forgotten how to make decisions myself -- he had made them all for me.

"But I went to get help from The Physical Abuse Centre and I realised I had to get out.

"To anybody suffering at the moment, my message is that there is nothing in it for you. The longer you stay in a relationship, the worse it will be. You deserve better.''