2009 was supposed to be a great year for me. I was a young, single mom to two toddler boys, had great family relationships and had begun dating a nice guy who my step-mom had known before I did. My ex-boyfriend lived an hour away and was finally starting to be civil and leave me alone, for the most part.
In September 2009, my ex found out I was newly dating someone. Things escalated very quickly. He started with threatening me, showing up to my boyfriend’s job and then driving by my apartment late at night. Finally things cooled off, and I was relieved, but I didn’t know that he was in a “planning” phase. He had decided to hurt me, leaving our boys without a mom. He decided that he and three friends would kill the people I loved. In October 2009 our lives were forever changed when my ex murdered my dad, stepmom and boyfriend to get back at me for moving on. His friend purchased the gun for him since he wasn’t able. I will forever miss them and share the stories of the beautiful people that were taken from this world that year.