The other day while driving I saw a car that had some vinyl lettering on it’s rear window. This is what it said:
Donna Sue
12-26-1968 2-15-2003
STOP DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
I was behind the car at a stop light so I had some time to look at the dates. My first thought was about how Donna Sue was born the day after Christmas. I imagined how happy her parents must have been, what a great Christmas present she probably was for them. She was born two years before I was.
Then I noticed her death date: 2003. I tried calculating how old that would have made her when she died, but I’m not good at calculating ages. I’m still not sure—but she was definitely younger than I am now, which means in her 30s.
I assume her boyfriend or husband killed her.
Then I noticed the day she died: the day after Valentine’s Day.
February 15th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
This is one sad post sister. Donna was 35.
The average adult person who enters a domestic violence shelter has been to the ER 7 times and their children are beginning to be physically abused. That means they have been abused many more times that didn’t required a hospital visit; and usually their motivation is not to save them self, but their children.
I could go on and on about Domestic Violence, but will try to keep it to this: If you notice a friend (male or female) whose spouse is controlling, has moved them away from friends and or family, and who limits their associations with anyone outside of their immediate family “because the spouse just wants to take care of them and spoil them all by them self”, that’s you red flag to begin talking. Take notice. Listen for subtext. Assure the person that they still have merit and support from you and others and that they are not crazy or just too sensitive. Listen to your inner voice and seek advise on how to proceed from a local shelter.
February 15th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
That’s depressing. The holidays must be really tough for her family. I do like the thought of that kind of a “window sticker” instead of Calvin peeing on something. It’s cool to have something that gives you pause and makes you think.