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Was The Bruised Young Woman I Saw in A Restaurant A Victim of Relationship Violence?
The Possibility Leaves Me Wondering What I, Or Others, Can Do to Help
The young woman in this image looks remarkably like a young woman I recently saw in a restaurant. Only the young woman I saw had serious, fresh-looking bruises on her face. Disturbing to imagine, yes?
She walked nearby, about 10 steps behind a tall young man, as they were led to a table. I glanced at her, and then looked again because of the condition of her face. She looked me in the eyes. And kept walking.
Before and as I was leaving, I racked my brain about a possible way to connect with her, out of concern. Maybe she was in a car accident, or some other mishap. I obviously didn’t know. My instincts told me otherwise, from the slim set of cues and clues I observed.
I knew it was not a good idea for me to try to interact with her or slip her a note or any such thing. Not with her “date” sitting across from her. Upon leaving, I stood outside the restaurant for a while, still wondering if and what I could do. And didn’t come up with any feasible ideas. So, I left, not knowing who she was, where she went from there, what her situation was, or what her fate or even her immediate future might be.
