There are times when we receive word of something that’s so horrific it actually makes our brains stall out. That happened to me late last night. Sitting alone in my office at my desk, I was catching up on correspondences when I clicked on one from a friend whom I hadn’t seen in a number of weeks—not that unusual, but she had been on my mind.
Opening her message, I began to read. A couple of sentences in, my pace slowed as my eyes scanned each and every word with intense scrutiny, my brain refusing to accept what I was reading. I finished the message and then reread it a second time…and then a third. Halfway through the fourth reading, something in me broke, and I leaned back in my chair, my hand covering my mouth, my eyes staring blankly at the screen.
I felt as if the life had just been sucked out of me in one giant whoosh and what remained couldn’t wrap my mind around the totality of what I’d been reading—my girlfriend had almost died. She had been brutally attacked by a random, savage individual who had been intent on killing her while torturing her in the process!
My girlfriend attached a photo to her message. As I sat there in stunned disbelief, my body feeling as if it was completely numbed, I tried to comprehend that the maimed individual I was viewing was my girlfriend who had been a model. Dawning recognition setting in, my chest heaved and tears began to fall. Not a few but an unstoppable deluge.
Reading her message for the fifth time, I finally computed how it had taken a team of twenty, yes, I did say twenty, surgeons to save her life! The situation had been so grim that those surgeons bothered not with trying to make her presentable, that would come later…if she survived. Instead, they stapled my girlfriend together. During the surgery, they realized that the attack had been so brutal that one of her kidneys had actually been cut.
Though a good portion of her body is now covered with defensive wounds, surgical incisions, and stapled areas where the surgeons put her back together, my girlfriend is rising above—grateful that she’s alive and that she was given a second chance on life. The individual who committed this heinous crime has been arrested and is now on trial for attempted murder. And my girlfriend? She’s standing tall and proud as she sits in the same courtroom as the man who tried to kill her, testifying against him as she looks him in the eye.
As a result of this senseless crime, my girlfriend has but one favor to ask. She requests that people show their support for National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, beginning on Sunday, April 10th and lasting through Saturday, April 16th. I gave her my word that I will be supportive of it and am now reaching out to others on her behalf to raise more awareness. Please make a stand against violence by showing your support of those who have been directly affected by it.
For more information on NCVRW, please go to the following link:
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