Janis Schultz (Browell)
A Victim Of Domestic Violence
1941 - 1996
Another woman
Today another woman died
and not on a foreign field
and not with a rifle strapped to her back,
and not with a large defense of tanks
rumbling and rolling behind her.
She died without CNN covering her war.
She died without talk of intelligent bombs
and strategic targets
The target was simply her face, her back
her pregnant belly.
The target was her precious flesh
that was once composed like music
in her mother's body and sung
in the anthem of birth.
The target was this life
that had lived its own dear wildness,
had been loved and not loved,
had danced and not danced.
A life like yours or mine
that had stumbled up
from a beginning
and had learned to walk
and had learned to read.
and had learned to sing.
Another woman died today.
not far from where you live;
Just there, next door where the tall light
falls across the pavement.
Just there, a few steps away
where you've often heard shouting,
Another woman died today.
She was the same girl
her mother used to kiss;
the same child you dreamed
beside in school.
The same baby her parents
walked in the night with
and listened and listened and listened
For her cries even while they slept.
And someone has confused his rage
with this woman's only life.
-Carol Geneya Kaplan
Jan's Story
This page is dedicated to one of the nicest,
most caring people I've ever met.I
met Jan in May '95 and liked her immediately.
She was the "head-housekeeper" at the motel I
started working. She was extremely outgoing
and funny and would do anything for
anybody.Jan was married to the maintenance
man of the motel.A quiet and strange man, in
my opinion.He LOVED to drink and was sent
home from work many times for being
intoxicated.After a few months Jan started
opening up more and more telling us about how
mean Hal (her husband) would get after
drinking.He was always checking up on her and
threatening her.
One day at work she just broke down.She said
"he's gonna kill me soon".Jan was
terrified. Marsha (the other
housekeeper) and I offered our home to her to
get
away from him.But she refused, she said "I'm
scared he'd kill the person who'd take me in,
too".One week later, on a Saturday I was
getting ready for work.I lived right under
the office of the motel, when I heard a
scream.Immediately I got that sick feeling
in my stomach.I kinda knew what happened
somehow.Marsha came knocking on my door with
the newspaper, she yelled "Jan is dead"!!!
I kept saying "no she's not", in total
denial.She showed me the article and I still
didn't wanna believe it.Hal had actually shot
her in the head the night before.Police think
that she was about to walk out on him.She had
a suitcase in the car and one shoe on and one
shoe off, as if she was ready to leave.Well,
she never made it.
Harold Schultz was arrested and received 13
years in prison.At the time of his arrest he
was 61.
