Vicious sex assault was rock bottom for Monica
IT was a serious, brutal assault four years ago, landing Monica Dawson in a Gold Coast hospital, that was the turning point in her life.
The Salvation Army stepped in when she was at rock bottom.
“I was literally sitting on the bed, homeless, with everything I owned in a car in the parking lot, waiting for my prescriptions with a case worker,” she said.
“They’d booked a motel for me for a week and we were picking up my bags and she got a call to say that Salvation Army at Still Waters had a room for me.
“I know in my heart of hearts I was that broken on the day the phone call came. I know I wouldn’t have survived that week in the motel.”
Monica had met a man online and it was when they finally met in person that she was bashed by him and three others.
“I made a choice to go and meet someone I’d been talking to online,” she said. “That meeting led me to being sexually assaulted by four men, three days before Christmas. Ended up in hospital for emergency surgery.”
She is reluctant to talk about that terrible chapter in her life, but in telling the Bulletin about how the Salvos rescued her and how the annual Red Shield Appeal is vital in allowing the charity to help people in dire need, Monica revealed that nine months before the bashing that put her in hospital and then her move to the Still Waters crisis accommodation centre, she had been suffering deep depression.
Her spiral had been fuelled by gambling addiction, physical and sexual abuse, mental health issues and a falling-out with her daughter.
“I was getting extremely bad workplace bullying and sexual harassment by the owner of the company I worked at, and I had nobody to go to,” she said.
“My depression kicked in. By this point (daughter) Caitlen was 16, she’d had enough and moved out. I got to the point where I was knew she was safe, she was finally happy.
“I was waking up with nightmares and I made the decision to end my life. Obviously I didn’t succeed. So I left the area and left Caitlen behind.”
What happened next, four months after her move, was something Monica said she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy.
“In the early hours one morning I was woken to the police, who informed me that Caitlen, who was 17 at the time, had taken her life the day before.”
Like her mother, Caitlen had been subjected to bullying at school and online, and had been self-harming in the years leading up to her suicide.
“To say that my world imploded that morning was probably an understatement. So I drifted – a lot,’’ Monica said.
“But at my time in Still Waters, I was allowed to just be me and go through the processes I needed to go through, focusing on me and trying to mend me.
“There was no judgment, nobody looking down on me, no pity. Just lots of love, which is what I really, really needed at the time.”
Monica has turned her life around. She is studying for a social welfare degree, majoring in health and disability, while working with a charity called I Can, I Will Australia, which works with kids being bullied.
She is also a huge advocate for the Salvation Army and similar charities.
“I can’t begin to describe how important the Salvation Army is and the work they do,’’ she said.
“I wouldn’t be where I am now, I wouldn’t have sustained tenancy in a beautiful unit for nearly three years now. I wouldn’t be reasonably stable with my mental health.
“I’m smiling and I’m laughing. There are more good days than there are bad days now.”
The Salvation Army’s accommodation and housing services regional manager Mona Nielsen said Still Waters provided hope and support for women and families in overcoming the barriers in their lives.
It was only made possible with campaigns such as the Red Shield Appeal, which is the Salvos’ major fundraiser and runs over April, May and June, with the annual doorknock on May 26-27.
“Funds donated assist a service like Still Waters to continue to work with the most vulnerable persons in our community,” Ms Nielsen said. “There are many reasons someone may experience homelessness – relationship break up, physical and mental health, addiction and domestic and family violence. The Salvos support anyone who seeks help.”
I KNOW IN MY HEART OF HEARTS I WAS THAT BROKEN ON THE DAY THE PHONE CALL CAME. MONICA DAWSON