Life is not always a fairy tale, especially for frail isolated elderly adults living far from family. I was reminded of this sad fact during the course of conducting a survey on elder abuse and neglect among rural community-dwelling elderly adults in Malaysia, when I came across Mrs. ST, who willingly shared the story of her life with us. When I called upon Mrs. ST in her house one hot, sunny afternoon, in the village she has lived in most of her life, she came across as warm and personable, despite being bedridden. She is a 76-year-old widow, having grown children who live away and visit periodically, and lives with a dedicated maid who assists with her daily needs. Before her husband died, he had inflicted frequent psychological, physical, and even sexual abuse on her. Her family, whom she confides in, were unable to protect her from this situation. At the most, her children would warn her that her husband was irritable and to avoid him at times, but he would invariably find her and beat, kick, or punch her, even locking her up, in addition to demeaning her, slighting her, and being suspicious and jealous of any contact she may have had with men, even the handyman or mailman. According to her, her once-loving husband turned into a jealous and abusive person in the last 4 years of his life. From her account, we can only wonder whether he had dementia or some other untreated condition. If we had not visited her in this remote area, her story might not have come to be known. Local health and social welfare authorities followed up with elderly adults found to be abused in the recent survey and hence had some form of monitoring or even closure to their unhappy situation. This is an attempt to share her experiences, to bring her story out of the shadows. Mrs. ST was brought up practically an orphan. Her mother died when she was an infant, her father left the family shortly after, and her older siblings raised her, treating her much like Cinderella, forcing her to perform household chores, besides being beaten and starved by her older sister. When she was older, she ran away and was later taken in by her older brother, in exchange for assisting with his growing family. This was a welcome refuge from the abusive situation that she escaped from, living with little or no shelter for a time. At 14, she married for the first time but soon separated because of pressure from her mother-in-law. She remarried at 19 and lived happily until her twilight years, when this husband began mistreating her in his last few years of life. Mrs. ST has a wistful look on her face when she speaks about him, choosing to remember the better parts of a lifetime shared with him, showing us jewelry and keepsakes she still has from him, and not the harsh reminders of abuse encountered toward the end. If only all of us were that forgiving. Although she is no longer at risk of abuse and has forgiven the perpetrator of her abuse, the effects may still be upon her, as she feels lonely and a little depressed. One wonders, with proper elder protective measures in place, if Mrs. ST would have had a happy ending, just like Cinderella. Rajini Sooryanarayana's work on this study was supported by the Public Service Department of Malaysia and University of Malaya and Ministry of Higher Education High Impact Research Grant E000010–20001. Ethical approval was received from the University of Malaya Medical Centre institutional review board (902.2, February 21, 2012). Conflict of Interest: The author has no conflicts of interest. Author Contributions: Rajini Sooryanarayana was responsible for the literature search, study design, data collection, writing, and submission. Sponsor's Role: None.