By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
Monique is a woman from La Marque with a scarred soul. She’s been beaten, she’s been held captive, she’s been shot, she’s been arrested and served time. She’s seen and lived the underbelly of our nation. Yet she forges forward.
“I’ll be forever on a journey of healing and frustration, but one thing is for certain, I am never alone because I have him, the Lord,” shared Monique.
Born in Galveston at John Sealy Hospital, life began with some joy and delight. But her parents became addicts to substances and life began to throw the evil side of humanity at her.
Through it all, her love from her mother and her love for her mother remined a bond sealed at birth.
“My mom always kept reminding me to stay in the ‘Word’,” remembers Monique. “I still love her very much,” she added.
Her mom died in 2015. Monique had just received her six-month jail sentence for a minor drug offense and without her mom she would need to find a place for her own daughter to live while she did her time in jail. An aunt stepped in and gave Monique’s child a home while she paid her debt to society.
There might not be words in the English language that we can use to convey with deep emotional accuracy the experiences of Monique’s childhood. One word could be simply emptiness.
La Marque Public Library saw a lot of Monique while she was a child. She escaped her reality through reading books. “I love history and geography and how-to books. I always want to learn something more. I am thankful that there was the support with programs in the community for kids and those programs need to keep going,” Monique expressed.
But what more could a community have done to maybe prevent Monique from the treacherous journey of her life? “Maybe there could be more help for the parents not just avenues for the kids,” suggested Monique.
Giving life her best shot, at age 18 Monique delved into healthy living and began work at a GNC retail outlet in Galveston County. She took up kickboxing and pursued her faith in Jesus Christ through attendance at Pentecostal places of worship and continued her personal reading of the Bible.
The battles of daily living with her broken spirit drew her into one bad marriage and then another. For a while she lived in Odessa. That was the first place she was held captive.
Bits and pieces of her captivity fall into her memory, such as a field of dry grass and a man. But mostly all she remembers is waking up in a hospital room with bruises covering her entire body.
She had gone out drinking before her mind turned off. She was told that an employee at a store found her beaten and unconscious behind the store. She does not remember being found.
Her failed marriage and the beating prompted her to return to her mother’s nest, an apartment in La Marque.
Monique was a mom herself at that time and life was a constant battle just to survive. Failing at marriage, being beaten, and living with her mother who was an addict was not a time of vibrance and health.
Her second time of captivity she again doesn’t remember much about what happened. other than what family and friends have shared with her. “My mom went all over the complex looking for me and praying to God begging him to keep her baby girl safe,” Monique shared, her own eyes expressing emotional pain as she reached for several tissues.
“I just wanted a cigarette and then there they were in a car with a menthol cigarette just what I wanted. I knew the cigarette smelled funny, but I didn’t care,” shared Monique. She had left her mom’s apartment for an evening stroll and ended up missing for many days.
A third captivity happened on another evening stroll. She remembers her captures were men and she knows they didn’t feed her. What happened to her during those days she was missing is not a memory that she can recall.
Thinking back to the three times she was held against her will Monique can feel and remember the sense that God was with her. “I was never alone, He the Messiah was with me and that was the hope I had that helped me through,” explained Monique.
Monique has memorized the Bible and she quickly shares passage after passage of those Bible verses that have given her comfort. She has a favorite passage which she calls upon when she is feeling pulled into the darkness of life.
Psalm 1:1-6
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Staying in the ‘Word’ provides Monique with the stability she needs to bring some level of continuity to her life.
Finding support in groups such as Providence Outreach Ministries is one way that she copes. Through regular Bible studies with women who surround her with love, compassion, and accountability she has been able to stay focused and has been working at GNC since 2018.
Monique feels she has left survival mode behind and is beginning to thrive a little. Though she has bright moments, her life will always be a battle just to stay afloat.
Because of Monique’s life journey, her own daughter also lives with the scars of a childhood filled with family trauma.
Monique has a one-year-old granddaughter. Her granddaughter, in the eyes of State Senator, Larry Taylor, is a family tree and perhaps with a lot of support this little one’s future family tree can look and feel healthier and happier than the one from which she was born.
