So, everybody on the internet is talking about the Big Stone football coach thing, but there is another story in which the mother is going through something much more serious. To be frank, reading her story gave me a kind of sick feeling. The one thing that worries her is that the man who almost killed her baby girl will soon walk free from prison, and no one seems to pay attention.
Her name is Kristen Wilder. She said that while people argue about the coach and the team record, she is stuck living and reliving the worst moment of her life. I kind of understand her feelings because, in my own life, I have experienced how gossip is more important to so many than actual danger. I remember an incident when one of my cousins got hurt really badly by someone in our area, and people just forgot about it a few days later, going back to their trivial chatter. Reading through Kristen’s words, I had that same feeling again.
Kristen said her anxiety worsened because the man who attacked her daughter is meant to walk free on Monday. She said her nerves are going crazy, and honestly, I can imagine that. I would be scared, too, if someone did such harm to my little sister.
She stated that no one talks about him because he did not make Facebook news or was part of the local team. She said the person who almost killed her daughter when she was just one year and four months is soon coming out, and most people do not even know what he did.
What hurts her more is the fact that her daughter’s story hardly made anyone else’s news. The football story is online everywhere, but her child’s story stayed inside a courtroom. She even asked why no one talked about it.
Kristen recalls everything from the moment she received a note in the courtroom telling her to rush to the hospital. Her baby girl had to be flown by air for treatment. When they got their daughter to the doctors, they found something terribly wrong with her. The attacker had hit the back of the baby’s head with a tobacco stick so hard that it broke. That hit caused strokes and seizures. Her daughter has lived with those effects ever since.
Kristen stated that at the time, her daughter was just one year and four months old. Now she is eleven and still suffers from the consequences of that. Just the thought of reading that stopped me in my tracks for a moment. How fast children heal from normal injury, though, is something that stays with someone forever.
Court documents say the man, Christopher Allen Johnson, was charged with malicious wounding and child abuse that caused serious injury. For both charges, he was sentenced for a long time. But time flies, apparently, because it is nearly ten years since the act occurred in 2015, and he is now getting out.
Kristen expressed being scared, not knowing where he would go after being released. She does not know if he would be near her family. She said she does not know how to handle this and asked for prayers for her family and to keep the kids close.
She also reminded all that life can change real quick. She advised parents to show their children love while they have the chance. She said a child can be taken away quicker than you think.
While the town is engaged in a fight over a coach, she is dealing with one other monster that she has never healed from. According to her, if the man had no connection to football, nobody would be talking about him. She asked, Why was my daughter not talked about then and now?
As the date for his release approaches, she wants the world to finally hear her and understand what has happened. She hopes people will share her message because, to her, this is not just about the trending topic. To her, this is a man who tried to take her baby’s life, and she feels everybody is focused on the wrong thing.
Thinking about all she said really got me in ways that show how fast people’s mindsets shift from important issues to less important matters. Her fear, as much as we all would agree, is valid; anyone in her shoes would have felt the same. You may also be interested in: Virginia Blames Cheer Skirts While Coach Turner Runs From The Law
