Despite the fact that there are many bloggers out there, we often become a tight knit community.Even if we never meet one another, we follow each other’s blogs, comment on posts that touch us in some way, and sometimes learn secrets from one another by watching as success comes along. One blogger I’ve seen along the way is Chris K from Adventures of a Thrifty Mama. Although I’m not a mother, she has offered great tips followed by many.
Unfortunately, today her Adventures of a Thrifty Mama Facebook page is updated with notes of R.I.P. as everyone in the blogging community, her family, friends and neighbors mourn the loss of her life at the hands of her ex-husband. A victim of domestic violence, her husband killed her and her oldest son before killing himself and leaving 3 young children without their parents.
I have never been a victim of domestic violence so I will never understand the situation she was in, the fear she must have had, or the reasons she stayed. I cannot pretend to understand. When I owned my salon I had small cards in our ladies room for women to take with them if they needed to reach out anonymously about how to escape domestic violence. I also partnered with the local YWCA to offer free haircuts to women and children escaping the grip of domestic violence and looking to move forward with their life. I took a course through the YWCA to attempt to understand the statistics and the stories of the lives of women who have dealt with this, but to this day I still do not understand. There are options out there, but it is so hard for people to risk everything to start over.
There are several groups on Facebook that Chris belonged to and they are coming together to take collections for the children. Due to the circumstances they are unable to return to the home to gather their belongings. They are in need of clothing and toiletries. Please consider helping. This is a tough time of year for everyone, and can you imagine how much worse it is to be without your parents at Christmas?
WILX10 in Michigan has posted this news article and video with more information about this tragic incident from Thursday, December 5th. Below is information on how you can donate. Please, think of your family this year and how much you have (including each other) and consider giving to those who need help in this holiday season!
You can also visit the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing to learn more about the Chris Keith Memorial Fund.
Please be in prayer for this family and these children. If you have a happy memory of Chris you’d like to share, please feel free to share below.
I learned a lot from Chris and her page. I have also gotten lots of great deals by reading her posts on facebook then heading over to her blog. We as a blogging community are all at a loss for words over this situation!! I know the feeling of being stuck in the relationship, I thank my lucky stars I was strong enough with the help of my now fiance to leave before I became a statistic. I still worry to this day because we have a daughter together and she has to see him and I still have to talk to him. He still makes lots of threats and the courts do not take it serious, they always drop restraining orders!! This should not be the case, we as woman should be able to feel safe and no man should ever hit a woman!!! RIP Chris!! I will sadly miss your posts!!
One of the groups I belong to on facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/bloggingempiresociety/ are trying to come together as a group and help out the children during this Holiday Season, I am going to collect as many clothes as I can for them when I go volunteer at the thrift shop Wed. and some bloggers are paypaling me cash to help with the cost of shipping along with buying the toiletries they need and a little holiday cheer by getting the 3 kids stockings filled with Goodies. It will not bring their mommy back but it is the least we can do for a fellow blogger. If you would like to help but are like a lot of us and don’t have much to spare you can join in with us and help out. You can send donations to: [email protected] please leave a note that it is for Chris’s children and weather it is to help with shipping or shopping for the toiletries and stockings. I do not have to pay for the clothing I will get from the thrift shop. Please pray for these 3 children and the rest of the family during this Christmas season as they come to realization that mommy will not be coming home this time and the grandparents are now parents to these 3 young children!! We are going to include a card for the grandparents and separate cards for the kids!!!
Thank you for sharing your story!