Hi my name is Alyssa and my daughter we will just call Dae. I just want to say thank you for taking the time to come and look into our story. Over the month of July I had fallen victim of domestic violence by my at the time boyfriend. First time was on 7/6 gratefully no injuries, second 7/15 I had a swollen shut right eye and a severe black and blue which was still healing at the time of the third and final assault on 7/26.

My daughter was asleep during the first, not home during the second, and unfortunately the third she managed to get back into the room to witness the assault and fell victim to the assault by him. He had tried to on 7/24 but I managed to stall after convincing him to let me get her ready for her appointment and then we could go talk upstairs, he was calm enough to where the abuse was just verbal instead of physical. *warning this is where it gets graphic*

During the day on the 26th I was at work I had left at 7am and was not supposed to be out until 8pm. I received a call a little after 7pm from our assailant stating my daughter that’s 3 years old was found by the neighbor outside alone. I lost my mind at this point, I did not watch my mouth or walk on eggshells like I had over the last few weeks. I spoke venom in every word. I immediately left work after telling him he was an incompetent piece of crap. Once arriving home about 10 minutes later I began my search for my child. I found her in my bedroom sitting on my bed with our assailant vacuuming the hard wood floors with my carpet vacuum (I’ll explain in a moment). I grabbed my daughter and held her while the tears rolled down my face and I lectured her about safety (she is neurodivergent and does not understand unfortunately). I looked her over and placed her down then began to ask her if she had dinner yet and if she was hungry. That’s when the assailant states she had refused food and everything all day (that’s complete bologna because my daughter loves food and would never refuse every meal). I asked him about why he was vacuuming and he stated she had grabbed my handheld mirrors and shattered them so he was getting the glass off the floor. Another lie as they were placed over 5 feet from the ground and she had never been able to reach them before as there is also nothing she could have used to climb up to grab them. I said nothing though and just turned my attention back to her and told her let’s go find something to eat. I opened my bedroom door enough for her to make her way through, just as I began opening the door wide enough for me to get out is when slammed the door shut with his hand, from that moment my worst nightmare began. The assault was hard and gave me no chance to fight back or protect myself. I was punched, kicked, dragged by my hair, choked, and slammed into anything and everything. My daughter screamed from the other side of the door as she heard my cries and my pleas for him to stop. During the assault she managed to get back through the door. She screamed and cried for him to stop. I yelled for her to leave the room and to go downstairs while yelling for him to stop, but he didn’t the assault continued. I heard her even closer to where he was beating on me and I continued to yell for her to leave, she didn’t listen. I had been protecting my face and head with my arms but I heard her even closer than before and heard something that sounds like something being hit. I dropped my arm on the right and turned my head in her direction to see she was screaming at him to stop while beating on him with her little fists. The next thing I see still plays in my head on repeat. He grabbed my daughter and threw her across the room. While she was mid air I instinctively dropped both my airs to reach for her but she was thrown 5-6 feet across the room and there was no way I could’ve caught her. When she landed she landed on our stand up portable air conditioner. The sound of the impact, hearing it move, and her wailing haunts me. I turn my head from the direction she was thrown back to the assailant and before I could protect myself, he sent his knee flying into my eye socket with intense force. The blood flowed from my nose and mouth, my mouth so bad I was choking on it, and the eye was swelling shut. From there the assault continued, my daughter screaming and crying from the other side of the room, my pleas for him to stop continued to go unheard, I continue telling her to leave the room and that I’m okay. He stomps on me as I try to crawl to her. His attention fell on her as she began screaming “daddy killed mommy”. I tried with every bit of me to fight up onto my hands and knees, it wasn’t until I heard him moving in her direction that I found my strength and got up. In doing so it got his attention and he grabbed me by my hair again and threw me back into the corner where the assault began. I feel my daughter touching my arm and I moved as fast as possible and wrapped my body around her and put my body in front of her like a shield. She cried and shook, I cried and pleaded with him to stop. I don’t understand why but he stopped the beating and began pulling on my chin to see the damage he had caused this time. He began saying all the usual things he always said “I didn’t mean to”, “I tripped”, “I didn’t mean to strike you” all the while I’m curled around my shaking crying child. I tried to argue with him to let her out the room, and tried to argue for myself but he refused to let us leave.

*end of graphic details*

He finally released her later, but I was still stuck. Finally I was out and I came up with a plan to get us out without it causing one or both of our lives. The cops had come some hours later while we were finally safe as a friend came to extract us from the home. My daughter and I were evaluated, she had no apparent injuries at the time but they were pushing for me to go to the hospital. My daughter stayed behind with a friend while I was transported to the hospital. I was found to have a fractured orbital blow out, partially broken nose, blocked nasal cavity, severe concussion, and bruising to most of my body. It wasn’t until the following days that the worst was figured out. Once the swelling went down and I could open my eye did I realize the assault had taken my sight on top of my hearing and ability to open my jaw or eat food.

I’ve been out on FMLA since the night of the assault. Between doctors, specialists, and surgeons for myself we have also dealt with Child protective services, social workers, and the local police department almost every day since without a day to just try to relax. Only days off has been the weekends. I have slowly started to regain my sight but the pain is still excruciating, and my jaw I have been able to open it but trying to chew or bite down makes me feel like I’m being cattle prodded starting from my lip into the back of my eye. Today I still have extreme dizzy spells, lightheadedness, nausea, hearing issues, half numb face, unable to breathe out of my right nostril, pain to where I am unable to complete most tasks or sleep, and issues with my sight.

Our bills have began to back up due to my absence from work. I go to see the optical surgeon next week and an oral surgeon soon as the referral finally goes through. So depending on what they say and when the concussion symptoms subside I’ll continue to be out of work. I have been her sole provider since birth, her father has been no help and has never been a safe person due to his habits. I’ve been applying to assistance but most are saying that they do not have the funding. I’m out of options so here I am making this in hopes that maybe someone out there could help us get by. A lot of our things were destroyed throughout the month of July during the assaults that I have been trying to replace thanks to the help of local charities but there are still some things I haven’t been able to such as my laptop (which I still was paying off and had only gotten back in May), bedding, and some of her toys. The bill portion is rough. I have rent, lights, phone, and internet that will be due and I have no way to pay them. The medical bills I have from this are currently totally just around $2,000 and I still have more appointments to go. Funds will be going towards the bills such as rent, electric, internet (for her so she can enjoy her shows), and then phone bill. Anything and everything is appreciated and helpful. I’ve reached out to family but they are unable to help as they are struggling financially as well. Rest assured he is currently sitting in jail on a $25,000 cash bail with 7 charges and 2 of them are felonies so he won’t be released for a while and if he did I made sure to obtain a protection from abuse order. I hate the fact that I even have to start a campaign to ask for help and I hate the fact that our whole world got turned upside down because of someone just not being able to control themselves and their temper. Never did I ever think I would be in a situation like this with my child especially since I have always been quick to cut people out of our lives to maintain our peace. I’ve seen the shows and movies along with the online posts about others in similar situations and I always said that will never be me with my child. I feel deeply for those people now more than I did before. I wish more than anything I would’ve found a way out sooner so I could’ve continued to provide for us and kept us safe. It is far from easy to get out when it’s yourself but with a child it is even harder. We’ve been going through all the local programs we can for help but there has been a common denominator most of them just don’t have the funding they used to. I won’t be able to return to work until mid October when my eye sight returns fully and the concussion symptoms clear (luckily I have a follow up about that today 8/29 as they’ve just been getting worse) I work in healthcare so my current state just puts not just myself but my members I care for at risk. I appreciate those of you that have taken the time to read our story. We are grateful to those who have shared our story, kept us in their prayers, and even donated what they could as I know times are tough for all of us. As for the men and women who are still fighting for their way out I pray for your safety every night and do not give up hope. Help will come and you will have your peace again. It won’t be the same as it once was but in time you will find a newfound peace you never thought you needed.