Freedom from Domestic Violence

One mother's mission to teach and save others from her tragedy

 

By Monica Fountain

 

 

I’ve had a 3 years of confusion, frustration, and exhaustion. But along with that have come many blessings received and given. It seems like just yesterday I was calling you to tell you that I was on my way to come do your hair and help get the kids ready. As usual I had a last minute change in schedule but when I tried to call you back I got no answer.  Being the persistent mom that I am, I decided that I was coming anyway, maybe you were just out at the store.—a letter from Yolan  Henry to her daughter, written on the anniversary of her death.

 

Yolan Henry will never forget the day her daughter died-- January 24, 2009. She doesn’t talk about it every day. But it is always there.

Sitting in a suburban coffee shop, tears well up in her eyes as she describes her daughter, Nova, her shining star.

“I try to put it aside so that I’m not thinking about her every single day but I can’t help it,” Henry said. “I just loved her. That was my daughter.”

 I’ll see you later, Mom

 Opening the door to your house changed my life forever in the worse way! I try not to see that door but it’s always there. I just know that God opened his door as well and took you and Ava to live with him.

 

Noah knows this too. That’s what I’ve told him.  I’m sorry that you had to encounter such a demon that couldn’t understand your light that shone so bright, that’s why your Name was NOVA (SUPERNOVA: THE BRIGHTEST SHINING STAR!)…and Ava…I guess she was just here for a short while to come and get you cause God saw your pain and struggles, and he said NO MORE.

 Her name said it all. Nova. Supernova. A star. She was beautiful. She loved to dance. She loved to have fun. She was a mother who loved her children. She was her mother’s firstborn child.

Henry was a teenage mother. She found out she was pregnant her last semester of her senior year in high school.

“I just had to have her and let my life go on from there,” she said. “Nova was very fun loving. She loved music. She loved to dance. When she was a baby she always would just get up and dance for me and make me laugh.”

Life went on. Henry got married and had a son and another daughter. Her marriage ended after 25 years. Henry said her marriage relationship was abusive. She thought because they didn’t fight in front of the children that they didn’t see it, hear it or were affected by it.

Now that her daughter is gone, a fatal victim of domestic violence, she thinks different.

To read more click on the photo and read the full article in The Well Magazine Summer 2012

 

 

 

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