TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO

Twenty-seven years ago this very minute, 3:10 in the morning, life changed forever. So many years ago yet affected by it EVERY SINGLE DAY…NUMEROUS times a day--No one could ever even begin to know.

Nonetheless, I am blessed to have my Heavenly Father, His love, the Gospel...and a really good dog! Oh yeah, and a brown belt martial artist son...and a kick-bootie martial artist brother!

Oh...and the Glock...and the cattle prod...and the mace...

And a lot of attitude! I ain't goin' down that easy next time!



I haven’t gone around freely speaking about it at every turn. Somehow though, for the last couple of years, I have felt the need to. It happened to me, and whether you (family, friends) remember or not, it was real! Oh boy, was it real. And, I have talking (for lack of a better comparison…”bragging”) rights.

So, as this is my blog, and this is my outlet, I share my story.

If anyone in Blog land is reading and doesn’t like crime-show type scenarios, you will want to turn back now.

And so I begin…



THE READER’S DIGEST VERSION…

I had lived 30 miles out in the country…By myself…With my two dogs. Winters were bad, and the road home could not always be navigated. So…I moved in to town.

I ended up living in the duplex for one month. In that short time frame, this is what happened...

I came home from work, and my front porch light was out. I turned the bulb, and it was just loose and so lit back up. This happened the next night and the next night and so on.

I had two cats…One was a beautiful Himalayan with Blue eyes. I came home from work and found him meowing from inside the house (other side of the duplex) next door. I knocked on the door, and no one answered. At some point, maybe the next morning, my kitty was back. I came home the next day, and Malcolm was meowing for me from inside the next-door neighbor’s house again. Again I knocked…Again no answer. This happened again and again; I put a note on the guys car saying to stop taking my cat. I got no reply.

Malcolm came up missing and two weeks later was found in the ditch…dead. I hate to think of what the poor thing had to go through before he died.

One night a couple of weeks later, I went out with a girlfriend. Arriving home late and still not tired (night owl), I decided to bake some bread. At 3:10 a.m., there was a knock at the door.

Upon answering, I saw my next-door neighbor standing there. He had no shirt, and his arm was behind his back. he asked if he could use my phone because he was hurt. Of course, I let him in…BIG mistake.

He pulled a gun on me then ordered me to go back to my bedroom. Some not so good things happened there.

Then, he hit me over the back of the head with the gun, drug me to the bathroom, put me in the tub, and turned on the water…He left.

I heard him come back…Just as the water was encircling my nose and mouth, I got out. Showing me a knife, he asked me if I wanted that.

He made me kneel down, showed me where he was going to hit me (at the base of my head) with an 18-inch pipe wrench, asked me if I was ready, and struck me.

He shoved my head under water. The Lord helped me get up just as I couldn’t hold my breath any longer.

He made me kneel down again, showed me where he was going to hit me, asked me if I was ready, and struck me again.

He shoved my head under water. The Lord again helped me get up just as I couldn’t hold my breath any longer.

This happened over and over.

He then told me to get dressed (no shoes or socks allowed) and then hand-cuffed me. I was made to get into his car.

He drove very slowly…out of town into the dark. Alongside the road, by an irrigation ditch and a farmer’s field, he stopped. I was uncuffed long enough to be able to get through the barbed-wire gate then made to walk along a frosty dirt path. We stopped, and he hand-cuffed me.

I was told to kneel down…He showed me where he was going to hit me; he asked me if I was ready and smashed the pipe wrench down upon me. I fell to the ground. He stabbed me in the chest and left.

I heard him come back. He put his ear to my face…Listening to see if I was breathing. I tried so hard not too.

He stabbed me in the chest once again, this time turning the knife before he pulled it out. He drug me to a ditch and left me for dead.

Even now I occassionaly can’t believe that it really happened, but believe me, it did. It was barbaric and extremely sureel…one of those things where you think, “I can not believe that this is happening to ME!”

DH and I went out there tonight…To the field. I have driven by a few times over the years (not many), but other than taking the detectives out there right after it happened, I have never walked the path that I walked…Literally. For some reason, this was the year. So…DH, Dog, and I pulled up, alongside the road, by the irrigation ditch and the farmer’s field, and stopped. We crossed the barbed-wire gate then walked along the frozen dirt path. It was only 3-7 degrees cooler tonight then it was that night of February 19th twenty-seven years ago, it was just as dark, and the lights of town seemed just as far away as they did then. But tonight…No one MADE me walk that path…I chose to. I chose to…And it was o.k. It was really o.k.



I got back into our nice warm car with my hubby and dog, and we went home.