Lee  pulled her car up behind the ambulance in front of Lana's home. she got out of the car with shaking legs, told the policeman nearest her: " I'm Lana's mother, I want to see her."  The view across the street was blocked, the doors of the ambulance open, but no one was inside.  She could not see Lana and was unaware that she was lying across the street , dead.
          The policeman stared blankly at her.
          "I'm Lana's mother and I want to see her, she repeated becoming more alarmed.  "Where is she?"
          A strange look came over the policeman's face.  He seemed unable to respond and eventually blurted out:  "Well, ma'am he bludgeoned her to death."

          Lee heard in her ears a scream that seemed to come from the depths of the earth and rise to the heavens.  She distinctly remembered that in the midst of that scream, the thought came over her,   "Free at last, my darling daughter, free at last."

          That's what it can come to for victims of domestic violence and their families:  the final release from stalking, beating, harrassment, victimization is death.  She felt her kneess going out from underneath her and someone supporting her and saying:  "The girls need you."



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