A local survivor
The book includes the story of Yvonne Griffin, of Grand Forks, a mother in a relationship weighed down by domestic abuse when she swallowed the pills meant to end her life.
“It was 3 in the morning, and I woke up in a tub with some cool water,” she says, realizing she’d vomited the toxic medication. Earlier, Griffin says, she’d called out to God in desperation: “Lord, if you save me and bring me back from this, I promise to serve you forever.”
Yvonne Griffin. Special to The Forum
A Hidatsa and Assiniboine Sioux, Griffin’s abuse story began in childhood. “She was in 40 different foster homes, and in 18 of the homes she was sexually abused,” Robinson Sammons says, noting that a classroom teacher finally saw, and reported, her bruises.
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