“I didn’t think I’d gotten beaten up bad enough”: Behind the Doors of Three Oaks
The interview had already begun. I was checking my follow-up prompts while running down the mental list: shutter speed, audio levels, light placement. I was doing my level best to be fully present, but the first minute of any interview sees at least 10% of my attention directed toward double checking the laundry list of critical media items that can make or break a session.
Then she said, “I didn’t think I had a right to be here.”
The chatter in my head went quiet. I knew right away that I was hearing a story that would stay with me for the rest of my life.
She is a survivor of intimate partner violence, right here in the Quinte area. She chose to share her journey in the hope of bringing hope to others, and as she spoke, I was awestruck.
She had been smothered in a relationship that crossed every boundary, until the only door left to open was the one to a shelter. Even then, she hesitated. “I didn’t think I’d gotten beaten up bad enough,” she said.
That one sentence holds so much. How many people in our community are standing at that same door, wondering whether what they’ve lived through counts?
Guided by Three Oaks Executive Director Leah Morgan and Community Relations Manager Natalie O’Toole, we set out to tell the most comprehensive story of Three Oaks to date. Another woman shared her story. Leah and Natalie added facts about intimate partner violence in our own region that are, frankly, unsettling. The result is a short film designed to invite our community into the work of the Foundation, as it stands today and as it grows in the stages to come.
Watch the film below, and step behind the doors of Three Oaks.
