GREENSBORO, N.C. — Brenda White and her Daughter Latia White-Boney have a close bond.
They said they’ve experienced everything together; the good and the ugly.
“We were pretty outgoing and fun like no one would look at us and say, ‘I bet they’re being abused,’" Latia said.
“No one would look at us and say that.”
The pair said the abuse started in 2007 when Latia was in college.
She said she tried to stop her stepfather from hitting her mother.
“He then pushed me down, got on top of me, and started hitting me in the face and so he ended up cracking my skull,” Latia said.
“So, I had a hairline fracture in my skull.”
They said after the attack the physical abuse subsided but escalated five years later in April of 2012.
That’s when Brenda said her now ex-husband tried to kill her.
“I had gone to work, regular workday and started doing laundry and my ex-husband came in and just started stabbing,” Brenda said.
“Then he went to the back and got a cord and came back and dragged me to the oven door and tied me up and just left me there to die.”
She said with prayer she was able to escape, and a neighbor called 911.
“I was stabbed 10 times, I was stabbed twice in the chest, face, my arm.”
As survivors of domestic violence, Brenda and Latia use their voices to advocate and motivate others to live free from abuse.
Throughout October, the mother-daughter duo is collecting new and gently used pieces of luggage for shelters and crisis centers in North Carolina.
“A lot of individuals who come to the shelter, they don’t have anything to put their belongings in,” Brenda explained.
“If they get items that are donated, they have nothing to put them in but a trash bag, and I don’t want them to feel like they are trash.”
They said something as small as a duffle bag can go a long way.
“I think the luggage represents a symbol of moving on, it represents a symbol of hope. It represents a symbol of I’m going somewhere else.”
The luggage drive will be Saturday, October 16 at Mt. Tabor Methodist Church on Creek Ridge Rd in Greensboro.
Items can be dropped off between 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.
For questions: email latia.boney@gmail.com