beyond cinderella

As parents of a disabled adult child, Bill and I were confronted with our worst nightmare when our precious daughter, Shantel, called to tell us that last Saturday night, as she laid in her bed listening to a program on her phone, she thought she heard someone trying to get in her bedroom window. She immediately called 911 and reported what she thought was happening. The 911 operator told her they were sending help but did not keep her on the phone as they usually do.

Of course Shantel was scared, so she decided she would take her phone and go lock herself in her bathroom until the police arrived. However, as Shantel was leaving her bedroom and walking across the hall to the bathroom, she heard someone kick her front door in and before she could even get to the bathroom, some thug, said “Shantel its Damien”, and within minutes he had her by the throat and started choking her. She said she couldn’t breathe and thought she was going to die. She started trying to hit him and did everything she could to try to escape his grasp. She fought so hard that the intruder hit her in the face knocking her to the floor. Shantel began screaming so loud that her neighbors upstairs ( a brother and sister that share an apartment together, and who thankfully help her from time to time and check in on her to make sure she is alright) heard her screams and one of them started down the stairs to see what was happening while the other one called her cell phone which caused the intruder to grab her phone from her and run out of her apartment.

As the intruder was fleeing Shantel’s apartment, the brother and sister upstairs, and two other people saw him, and were able to identify him as a person that lived in the apartment complex in the past. They pulled him up on Facebook and showed his Facebook page to the police.

The police took Shantel to the police station and took pictures of her face and throat and Shantel said she was at the police station until 5:00 in the morning. However, Shantel did not call Bill and I until Sunday afternoon to tell us about all of this. I asked her why she didn’t call us Saturday night when she was at the police station and she said “I’m an adult now mom (23), and I didn’t want to worry you and Papa.” OMG, I told her “we are your parents and we want to know when you are in danger, or when something happens to you.”

I asked Shantel how she knew this intruder since he told her his name and she said he did live across the courtyard from her and he would say hi to her if she was walking to or from the laundry room, office, or mail box. She said he never came in her home and she really never had any conversation other than one day he was sitting on his patio and saw her as she passed by and said “hi, my name is Damien.” Then after that if he was out on his patio and she was walking by he would say Hi…

This whole thing of course has traumatized Shantel, and both Bill and I are just heart-sick about all of this.

I asked Shantel if she was scared to live there now and she said “a little, but I know I have to get past that because this is what I can afford, and my neighbors above do help me, and it is close to my best friend Jaz, and even if I moved mom, the same thing could happen…”

Of course as her parents, both Bill and I are OUTRAGED about all of this. It takes a special kind of scum of the earth to hurt a disabled blind person. I have to tell you as her mother, I would love to know who did this to my precious Shantel and if I ever came face to face to him… God forgive me, but I would do what ever I could to make sure that scum of the earth NEVER had an opportunity to do this again to anyone.

I am the mother of a disabled adult child, and I voted, and because of that, I have every right to voice my opinion, and my opinion is if you make fun of a disabled person, bully a disabled person, attack a disabled person, or support anyone that does… YOU are deplorable, and YOU are the scum of the earth, because then YOU helped set the stage for this to happen to my disabled daughter,  and if this post offends you, tough shit!!!

Stay Tuned!