Right Place Right Time
Yesterday before I was getting ready to meet Julia to walk a few laps around the park on Buffalo and Washington I stopped in at Trader Joe's for a free coffee. I love Trader Joe's......you get small coffees for free and they also provide cream and sugar. Perfect!
When we started walking I heard some kind of commotion behind us somewhere. I turn around and see a guy and a girl fighting.....it looked like he was being violent with her and there was lots of yelling. I got involved and started yelling loudly for him to leave her alone and that I was going to call the cops. He threw her purse hard into the ground several times and she was crying. Then he left and she was picking up her stuff that was scattered all over.....So we decided to approach her to see if she needed ANYTHING. Well, to make a rather long story short. Her name was Becky, 19 years old. Boyfriend 22 has been abusive towards her for the last two months. Including slapping in the face, pushing and choking her until she blacked out. She had decided to leave him and he was not happy about that (of course). Typical abusive and manipulative guy, telling her it's her fault when he gets mad and violent towards her, making her be with him only and not with her friends. We comforted this crying girl. She said she was embarrassed to be crying and we reassured her she had done nothing wrong. The boyfriend appeared behind us a few minutes later yelling nonsense like "bitch" and bla bla bla, I told him to stay the fuck away or he would regret it. Then we gave her a ride home to her Dad's house where she also was living. We told her to NOT go back to this "boyfriend" even though he most likely would try to win her back with sweet talk and I love you's. He at 22 is still living at home with his Mom, that according to Becky he would be verbally abusive to and he already had done some time for an incident involving violence. Typical loser and an abusive loser too. Me and Julia told Becky that she has her whole life ahead of her and with no ties like having kids together with him, she must cut him loose and move on to a bright future. We also told her that statistically women that get badly hurt and/or even murdered are usually the victims of a husband, boyfriend or an ex. We gave her our contact info if she needs us for anything, like help filing a restraining order or talk etc. We have her address and we are going to make her a really cute V❤lentine's card and send it to her. Outside her Dad's house we all hugged. Becky said she did not know what she would had done if we had not been there when all of this was going on with the boyfriend. We were simply at the right place at the right time.
And both me and Julia are really glad that we were there when this happened.
A few weeks ago I assisted another girl in distress. I was walking to my car after shopping at the Miracle Mile Shops when a girl came up to me and asked me if I could help her find her car. She said she had asked several people to help her and nobody would. She was a bit tipsy and I was concerned whether she was going to be able to drive home but she seemed OK, just somewhat frazzled and worried. It took maybe 15 minutes of looking and then we found the car. She wanted a hug too at the end. Sometimes you just have to do the right thing, even if it's taking an extra time out of your day or your comfort zone. Imagine if that was YOU going through something upsetting and there was nobody there willing to help. What an awful feeling! Speak up when witnessing something wrong. Do something if you can help.
Be kind. Easier said than done. I always say that actions speak louder than words. I came across this picture hanging on a wall in a store the other day and decided to snap a pic of it.
I think it ended up fitting this blog entry......
When we started walking I heard some kind of commotion behind us somewhere. I turn around and see a guy and a girl fighting.....it looked like he was being violent with her and there was lots of yelling. I got involved and started yelling loudly for him to leave her alone and that I was going to call the cops. He threw her purse hard into the ground several times and she was crying. Then he left and she was picking up her stuff that was scattered all over.....So we decided to approach her to see if she needed ANYTHING. Well, to make a rather long story short. Her name was Becky, 19 years old. Boyfriend 22 has been abusive towards her for the last two months. Including slapping in the face, pushing and choking her until she blacked out. She had decided to leave him and he was not happy about that (of course). Typical abusive and manipulative guy, telling her it's her fault when he gets mad and violent towards her, making her be with him only and not with her friends. We comforted this crying girl. She said she was embarrassed to be crying and we reassured her she had done nothing wrong. The boyfriend appeared behind us a few minutes later yelling nonsense like "bitch" and bla bla bla, I told him to stay the fuck away or he would regret it. Then we gave her a ride home to her Dad's house where she also was living. We told her to NOT go back to this "boyfriend" even though he most likely would try to win her back with sweet talk and I love you's. He at 22 is still living at home with his Mom, that according to Becky he would be verbally abusive to and he already had done some time for an incident involving violence. Typical loser and an abusive loser too. Me and Julia told Becky that she has her whole life ahead of her and with no ties like having kids together with him, she must cut him loose and move on to a bright future. We also told her that statistically women that get badly hurt and/or even murdered are usually the victims of a husband, boyfriend or an ex. We gave her our contact info if she needs us for anything, like help filing a restraining order or talk etc. We have her address and we are going to make her a really cute V❤lentine's card and send it to her. Outside her Dad's house we all hugged. Becky said she did not know what she would had done if we had not been there when all of this was going on with the boyfriend. We were simply at the right place at the right time.
And both me and Julia are really glad that we were there when this happened.
A few weeks ago I assisted another girl in distress. I was walking to my car after shopping at the Miracle Mile Shops when a girl came up to me and asked me if I could help her find her car. She said she had asked several people to help her and nobody would. She was a bit tipsy and I was concerned whether she was going to be able to drive home but she seemed OK, just somewhat frazzled and worried. It took maybe 15 minutes of looking and then we found the car. She wanted a hug too at the end. Sometimes you just have to do the right thing, even if it's taking an extra time out of your day or your comfort zone. Imagine if that was YOU going through something upsetting and there was nobody there willing to help. What an awful feeling! Speak up when witnessing something wrong. Do something if you can help.
Be kind. Easier said than done. I always say that actions speak louder than words. I came across this picture hanging on a wall in a store the other day and decided to snap a pic of it.
I think it ended up fitting this blog entry......
) I'd rather you hear my version of the story, meaning the TRUE version than some half truth, or lie that somebody else might have told you. Just in case......Plus I'm not "ashamed" to admit to having an emotional moment. I would had been ashamed if I had been the person causing another persons pain and tears for no reason, or if I had out of anger injured somebody else. But I didn't. So no, there is no reason to be ashamed to admit to tears and having a temporary meltdown.
