Thank you so much for the kind reply. This is exactly what my mother has been urging me to do for some time. I know deep down that it is what I MUST do, and I know that I will. It's just a question of when, because it's so much easier said than done. There's still that huge "guilt" factor of abandoning him to get over. Though, if someone had a safe place for me to go for a while (with my cats), and actually helped me pack my things and move there, I'd probably do it....when he wasn't home, of course.
Incidentally, my husband is a year older than you....he just turned 56.