Melody's Story

Melody and I are about eight and a half years apart, there were four daughters in my family and we were all very excited to have another baby in our house. I just remember being a very happy girl, she was fun, she was sociable. someone everyone could love

melody

was very active in high school joined every organization she qualified for was a cheerleader in almost every sport she could participate in was an amazing singer there was a program here at National College in the that she could participate because of her career in fashion merchandising and I think she was also looking for love and at some point she met Randy and fell madly in love with him, you know, it was kind of like, oh, I have a serious boyfriend and now we're leaving to get married and that's where that came from, so Melody was 20 when she got married, they seemed to be off to a good start and I think he was lovely, he treated her well and loved her at first but it wasn't until later. that I found out that she would keep in touch with our sister Jody and had told her some things that were very disturbing about how things were going between them, she would talk about these things and Randy's drinking and sometimes she wouldn't come back home until the wee hours of the morning.

In the morning there was one night when Melody called me and wanted to know if I would come pick her up because she didn't want to be home when Randy came home, she knew he had been drinking and sometimes that wasn't a good situation to be in when he came home. home, she had been telling me in our phone calls that things were hard but she thought a baby would get better and lo and behold, a few months later she got pregnant, she was excited, I mean, she was a little nervous because of the relationship, but she she was very excited to have a baby, she loved being pregnant, I mean, she was beautiful, she was radiant, she was very excited about what life was going to be and then when she started to get excited, Randy started to not get excited because he felt which was taking up all of her time as her pregnancy progressed.

Things would become sadder and darker. On March 23, 1988, Randy's mother was murdered by her husband. In fact, she ended up shooting him point-blank in the forehead. This is where Randy Randall's mother was murdered by Gordon Weese. Grindel said that he was despondent over the death of his mother and that he took revenge on the stepfather of his murderer. Gordon Weis pleaded guilty to the shooting and is now serving 65 years in the State Penitentiary after Randy went down deep. In many mental ways, when Randy started drinking, the money that wasn't coming in went to alcohol instead of food.

There was a time when they lived on popcorn for a whole week because that was all they had, so all these little things started happening and it was getting dark and she showed me where Randy had made a big hole in the wall and told him I said Mal, you know this isn't good and she said I know, I know he promises to be better, but he has this gun, she was upset because he bought it. She said it again, but she said she couldn't really stop it. She haunts me to this day, August 23, 1988. Melody was seven and a half months pregnant.

They had had an argument. He had pawned his dead mother's wedding rings and that was really distressing. she that he would have done that. I told her I was going to go pick her up and she said no because she wanted to confront him and finally fix things with him and uh so I didn't but I wish I had and then the conversation turned bad and then there was yelling and arguing and the neighbor upstairs heard some noises and then she let Bang and then she went downstairs and found my sister on the floor and she had a gunshot wound in her head when the ambulance team arrived. found out my sister had no pulse or breathing, she was brain dead, everything was still spiraling to this day, I miss her, group, you know, I would, I would, I wish we would have grown old together, still emotional, still raw, when someone is so close to you and you.

I just think that they are going to be there to this day I have no idea what could have created that kind of anger that emotion I have no idea what happened that night I just know that we lost her and even though we lost her we were able to save her son we didn't know for quite a while honestly about a week if she would survive or not

melody

was eight months pregnant when she was shot benjamin was born via c-section shortly after melody died hours later benjamin is not out of the woods however he suffered from lack of oxygen and only time will tell if the tragic events that brought him into this world will have any long-term effects.

We ended up adopting Ben. He did very well over the years. She's been strong and healthy and takes after the mother in many ways, so while you're excited about this son that you have and that you love so much, it's still hard because she's not here and it took a long time to call her parents because I felt guilty, you know, it sounds silly, but I was doing the things she wanted to do and that was the hard part of saving the baby, that was very important. It was more than just a comfort, it's the fact that something good came out of a terrible act.

I think anyone who has lost. a family member to domestic violence once his or her family member remembers it. I think they want someone to know that they were important and that in some way they want to make a difference and hope that some members of their family don't have to do this, maybe by speaking out and telling their

story

that it will help someone else have the courage to get out of a situation that puts them in danger and that they would have the courage to find people who know how to help them get out and it is people and organizations like the Bay Area that become point that will make a difference that is why I give is for what I encourage you to give to make a difference because survivors of domestic violence are everywhere they are your neighbors they are your children they are your friends let's stop this, let's end this now give and let's make a difference together outside