Purple. The color of a shade on a color wheel, the color of a wildflower on a hill country road, and the color for the awareness of Domestic Violence. But the shade of purple we tend to forget the most is the color of the bruises we can’t see underneath out clothes.
Celina Grace Gernale never realized how affected she was by domestic violence until she joined Alpha Chi Omega. Although it never physically happened to her, it still affects her today.
And I’m here to tell you her story.
It’s memories like these when people don’t feel comfortable talking about Domestic Violence. He was a husband, an uncle, a son. But more importantly to Celina, he was her father.
You have to realize you can’t control everything in your future, but she couldn’t help but ask, “Why me and my family?”
Conrad Gernale was a police officer for the city of Beaumont, Texas. He was like most of his coworkers: Caring, nice, he had perspective and a kindhearted soul.
Early in 2002, the Gernale family had bought a new house and things were finally looking up for their family.
Around midnight on September 6, another officer received a call to settle a domestic violence case, but because of conflict, Conrad Gernale offered to take place of the other officer.
Early the next morning, the Gernale family received the news that Conrad had been in killed in the line of duty.
“My mom told me that he was killed by a vehicle assault,” Celina said. “He was trying to protect a lady from her abusive boyfriend.”
Domestic Violence had officially changed her life for the worst.
“I was in the second grade at the time so I was naïve, I didn’t understand anything that was going on,” Celina said. “During the wake, I would see him in the casket but I would never get to close to it because it scared me.”
His casket seemed to look as though he was sleeping, but the only thing was he didn’t have color in him. It wasn’t until the funeral that it hit Celina; This would be the last time to see her father. From that day on, she has had a missing piece of her that cold never be replaced.
A police officer is killed in the line of duty every two and a half days in the United States, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
Last year, 124 officers were killed, according to the fund: 42 of them by gunfire; 52 in traffic accidents; 24 died of work-related illnesses, including heart attacks; and six died of other causes.
Domestic Violence is not something we need to joke about. A victim never. “asks for it.”
