She is strong. She is tough. And she still became a victim of domestic abuse. Don’t miss her story.
The years I’ve spent working as a journalist have desensitized me to a lot of hard things.
I’ve covered fatal car accidents, child abuse, murders, sexual assaults and every kind of arrest you can imagine, and only two of those cases have ever brought me to tears.
I’ve become pretty adept over the years at pushing my emotions aside while I crank out the story in front of me.
So imagine my surprise when my jaw started trembling and my eyes began to water while I listened to Rosye Holland speak at last year’s Better Beginnings Brunch hosted by Cross Timbers Family Services.
The Erath County Sheriff’s investigator shared her story of domestic abuse with a room full of hundreds of women - and it was, by far, the most moving speech I have ever heard.
Every woman was riveted by her harrowing tale – from the violence she managed to survive to her advice for others in similar situations.
Rosye and I have spoken several times during the past year and she agreed to give me a copy of her speech for a story about domestic violence.
I finished the two-part series today and it will publish on Beneath the Surface News in the first week in October, during Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Don’t miss it.
Meanwhile, these daunting statistics from the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence are a stark reminder of the plague of domestic abuse in Texas.
Did you know that 40.1% of Texas women and 34.9% of Texas men experience intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner rape and/or intimate partner stalking in their lifetime?
● In 2019, 150 women in Texas were killed by a male intimate partner.
● Firearm-facilitated intimate partner femicides increased from an average of 77 women annually between 2010-2014 to 96 women annually between 2015-2019.
● 75% of 16-24-year-olds have either experienced dating violence or know another young person who has.
● On one day in 2020, domestic violence shelters in Texas served 5,950 victims of domestic violence and received 1,563 hotline calls and 948 requests for services on this day were unmet due to a lack of resources.
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