Thank you for your help. -Nydia and Frances

Hi,

On the morning of February 22nd my sister and I woke up to the same news headline from a puertorrican news app. A woman was found murdered not too far from the house we both grew up. We immediately tried to reach out to our mom via phone call with no success. We both tried several times. My mom was a second grade teacher at a school not far from our house. We thought her phone was not getting good signal.

We even reached out to our dad.

As time passed we started to get more and more concerned. We thought something else happened, maybe an accident.

We eventually got a call from a family member and confirmation that not only the victim from the news was our mom but my dad was/is the main suspect. This is how our nightmare started.

I had to leave my 3 beautiful children at home shortly after telling them that “Mami” had gone to heaven. **PLEASE BE AWARE THAT OUR KIDS DO NOT KNOW ANY OTHER DETAILS.**

My sister has taken a short leave from work. She also has been dealing with health issues and bills since September of 2022. In all honesty she’s who I’m watching for the most in this request for help.

We traveled to Puerto Rico on February 23rd and have been here since. My mom had a beautiful service (February 28th) and burial on Wednesday March 1st.

We’ve got the support of friends and family on the island and it hasn’t stopped. We also appreciate all the support our amazing village has given my husband and our children while I’ve been gone. We couldn’t have done this without you! But there’s a lot to do in Puerto Rico before we go back home and we are trying to do this the most efficient way possible.

Frances and I kept going back and forth about reaching out to the community for this. If you asked us a while ago if we were ready emotionally and financially for something like this to happen, we possibly would’ve say yes. Yes, if it was part of our life’s natural cycle. But we weren’t ready for any of this.

We are trying to cover all expenses on our own but this has been way more than expected, and constant. We keep having to change return flight dates, stay, hire lawyers to protect ourselves and other matters that come with situations like ours.

We appreciate your help, it would mean the world to us. Thank you.

Please be kind to one another. We love y’all.

-Nydia & Frances

US: For anonymous, confidential help, 24/7, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE) or 1-800-787-3224 (TTY). 1-800-799-7233

PUERTO RICO: Coordinadora Paz para la Mujer: [phone redacted], [phone redacted].

Línea de Ayuda 939-CONTIGO (24 horas) - [phone redacted]

Línea de apoyo "Community Alliance for Integrated Sevices to Victims" (Proyecto CAISS, 24 horas)- [phone redacted]

Línea de apoyo Hogar Nueva Mujer (24 horas)- [phone redacted]

Línea de apoyo Proyecto Matria (24 horas)- [phone redacted]

Línea de apoyo Taller Salud 24/7 - [phone redacted]

Línea de orientación legal para sobrevivientes de violencia de género de la Casa Protegida Julia de Burgos (de martes a jueves de 4:00 p.m. a 7:00 p.m.)- [phone redacted]

Oficina de la Procuradora de las Mujeres:

Línea de emergencia: [phone redacted]

Línea de emergencia fuera de área metro- 1-800-981-9676. San Juan- [phone redacted]