COUNTY LIFE
Domestic violence has many faces: Emotional, financial, gaslighting
By BARBARA GREEN, editor@bowienewsonline.com
During 2020, 228 Texans were killed by their intimate partners.
Three or more U.S. women are murdered every day by their current or former intimate partner.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It is important to note domestic abuse is not about arguments or violent tendencies, it is about domination and control.
Men who kill their female partners usually dominate them first, sometimes without any physical violence. For some 28-33% of victims the homicide or attempted homicide was the first act of physical violence in the relationship.
A local woman shares her story of coercive control and how it almost led to her death twice. To protect her identity, The Bowie News is using a pseudonym for her, Sarah, and her aggressor, Tom. She hopes her story will shine a light on this facet of domestic violence.
The beginning
Sarah, now 50, grew up out of state, but has spent the last 10 years or so in Texas raising her family. She is an intelligent, faithful woman who loves her children, has worked as an educator and has an active role in ministry at her church.
Her relationships with her married partners have been fraught with joy and turmoil. Married to her first husband and high school sweetheart,
with whom she had three children, they were together 20 years when he came home one day and said he was not happy and left her for another woman.
Sarah hoped to have found happiness again only to see her second husband pass away during the night from a massive blood clot just nine months into their marriage. He had battled colon cancer, which led to an addiction to pain pills cutting their time together short during those nine months.
Her “rebound marriage,” as she calls it, turned out to be her aggressor during the seven years of their married life together.
“When I married Tom it as out of fear of being alone. When he started doing certain things, I did not see any red flags, as he isolated me. He would schedule a romantic get-away the same weekend as my grandson’s birthday party. He didn’t want me to be with family,” recalls Sarah.
Read the full story in the Saturday Bowie News.
(Top image: Courtesy photo, Jody Langston runs an informative table on Wise Hope Shelter & Crisis Center at the National Night Out Oct. 6.)
An American is sexually assaulted every 73 seconds. One in three Texans experience domestic violence in their lifetime. Statewide, intimate partner violence claimed the lives of 160 individuals in 2025 alone.
Behind these staggering statistics from organizations like Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network and the Texas Council on Family Violence are real people, and that is precisely why the Wise Hope Shelter & Crisis Center exists.
This October, during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the agency stands as a vital resource. Originally founded on Aug. 2, 1999, following the 1997 organization of the Wise County Domestic Violence Task Force, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit was created to address violence in rural north-central Texas.
Supported by hundreds of volunteers, Wise Hope has since grown to encompass a 20-bed, 4,800-square-foot shelter, three outreach offices and a thrift store, and the agency is preparing to announce an upcoming renovation project soon.
Read the full story in your Thursday Bowie News.
There will be a community blood drive from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Nov 2 at AVIR in Bowie, 700 W. U.S. Highway 287 South.
The Carter BloodCare Bus will be present with its staff to collect blood donations. The sign- up link is: greatpartners.org/donor/schedules/drive_schedule/168764.
Carter BloodCare is offering a plush new blanket to thank local blood donors for giving in November. Carter BloodCare’s annual blanket incentive has become a popular holiday tradition. The blanket is available while supplies last.
Eligible donors can give blood starting at age 16 with parental consent; those 17 and older can donate on their own. Donors must weigh at least 110 pounds and feel well at the time.
Carter BloodCare donors help Texans with life-threatening injuries from car wrecks; children fighting cancer; burn patients; older adults with health issues; organ transplant recipients; new mothers and others in need.
For details, visit CarterBloodCare.org or call 800-366-2834.
Carter BloodCare has proudly served Texans since 1951. The independent community blood center provides transfusion resources in 59 counties of North, Central and East Texas, supporting thousands of patients in more than 225 medical facilities. Carter BloodCare is one of the largest nonprofit blood programs in Texas, delivering more than 450,000 doses of blood, platelets and plasma each year to meet the health care needs.
As the holiday near blood is often in short supply, but the need never goes away. Make time to scheduled your date to donate blood to help your community to be prepared for the upcoming season.
The Montague County Commissioner’s Court opened bids for the reconstruction of the Montague County Veterans Memorial Wall during regular session Oct. 26.
The memorial, located on the courthouse square, was heavily damaged on March 4, 2025, when a severe storm with high winds supposedly caused two large black panels containing the names of local veterans to fall over and shatter.
It was the second time a panel had fallen at the site. A single panel previously fell in November 2021, costing $16,000 to replace and raising questions regarding the monument’s structural integrity. Following the 2021 incident, it was discovered no steel rods or internal supports secured the stone panels to the concrete foundation.
Read the full story in your Thursday Bowie News.
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