It was perfect race weather. The rain held off, giving us plenty of time to finish the inaugural 10 walk/run for Samantha’s Sanctuary here in Morgantown, W.Va. More runners turned out than initially signed up, so we had a good crowd. And one woman drove all the way from Gaithersburg, Read more…
In January, my friend Sheila and I went to Mexico for our mutual friend Olga’s wedding. We knew a little Spanish, but not much. An hour after our plane landed, we got into a car with two men, strangers we had never met, and began a one-hour journey to our Read more…
If we’re to believe Stephanie Lizon, being a farmer is a dangerous way to make a living. Lizon is at the center of what appears to be one of the worst cases of domestic violence in recent history. The petite brunette looked tired and worn down Friday morning, as she Read more…
The end of my trip to Charleston for a discussion about domestic violence couldn’t have been more alarmingly apropos. A Tuesday morning shower had just stopped and the sun was trying to peek around the clouds, when I heard a man yelling. I looked up from where I sat in Read more…
Originally this column was going to be about the results of my own meeting last night, to discuss plans for the workshops I want to hold to help empower women who are living with domestic violence. But today I received an email that should make many people happy, especially the Read more…
I was born in California and had I grown up there, I’m certain my life would have turned out quite different. For one thing, I’d be a surfer. A water baby at heart, you couldn’t keep me away from the Pacific Ocean if I had grown up in the Bay Read more…
But Will She Be His Last? The years have been hard on Dennis Ervin. But they’ve been even harder on the women who have loved him. Denny and I are the same age, we attended three years together at our alma mater, West Preston High School, and he once dated Read more…
It takes a lot to make a grown man cry. Especially in Preston County, where they just don’t. Centuries of struggle and tribulation have rendered these macho Mountaineers strong and stoic, when it comes to showing such emotion. But on Friday, April 27, as the lid on Shannon Stafford’s white Read more…
Court documents prove Nathan Mitchell has history of abuse; Facebook posts raise other questions Five years of fear forced 25-year-old Kristin Thompson to keep mum about her own abuse. While she remains terrified of her former abuser, she says she must speak up, because she’s afraid that silence may have Read more…
Shannon Stafford was holding a cherished love letter from her would-be fiancé when she was buried inside a white casket last Friday. Stafford was executed just six days earlier outside a Morgantown, W.Va., Wal-Mart, while her two-year-old daughter Faith was several yards away at the time. Police later allowed the Read more…