Letter from Wood Haven (And My Local SEO Pitch to Them)…
Before I started this SEO company in Charlotte (I mean way back, like the Summer of 2005), when I lived in Myrtle Beach, one of my sisters’ boyfriends hit her. She drove up to my apartment in her car by herself with bruises on her face, and all I calmly asked her was “Where is he?”
She wouldn’t say. So, I just looked at her and said, “Okay.”
By the time I went back in my apartment and came back outside (which couldn’t have been any more than two or three minutes), she’d already pulled away. I’d tried to be as calm as I could when I asked her where he was. But, I think she knew just what I was going to do, and what I went back in the house to get.
I didn’t have a car at the time, but it was only like a 20–25 minute stroll to her apartment from mine. No problem.
I was only like 23-years-old at the time, and was wild as hell in those days. I’ll put it like this: if you would have told me back then that almost two decades later (I’m 41 now) that I would have my own local SEO service in Charlotte, that I would be peaceful enough today to talk things out with people, and that I’d actually be making a living as a calm-natured Independent Business Editor, I would have looked at you and said “Man, you’re crazy.”
But, God is Good. Anyway, back to the story.
I was living at Oceanside Villas in Myrtle Beach at 4th Avenue North and Flagg Street, and working at the Krispy Kreme on 18th Avenue North at the time. My sister was living in a small apartment building right beside a Piggly Wiggly that was only a block from that Krispy Kreme with a man who I didn’t like (well he was living with her, he’d moved in with her), the one that had put the bruises on her face.
By the time I got there, I found out that I wasn’t the first person she’d told about him putting his hands on her, because it seemed like my whole damn family was already there, along with the police.
He left her apartment that day, and all I know is that he got shot and killed by the police in Florida sometime later and died. God had killed him for me.
One of the first people in Mecklenburg County who was kind enough to share my online marketing company for SEO services around Charlotte was a kind woman I’d met who was driving the Uber I’d called to take me up Albemarle Road. Her name is April Henry-Wood, and, from talking to her, you would never be able to tell that she’d gone through what my sister went through — domestic violence.
I recently called April on the phone. I had her number because I’d given her a business card for Trade Storytelling that day before I got out of her Uber (in case she ever needed any SEO consulting), and she gave me one of her cards, too. What I found out today about the woman is that one very dark period in her past is what has led her to start the organization that she’s currently operating today.
It’s one that helps women (and men) who have gone through really bad situations of domestic violence. She calls it Wood Haven, Inc.
Mrs. Henry-Wood wrote me this short letter when I asked her what it was all about, being that I was interested in possibly providing SEO services in Charlotte (and possibly in many surrounding areas in Mecklenburg County) for her caring, helpful new organization:
Hi Limus,
I greatly appreciate talking to you this afternoon. What I would say to a young woman who is in a domestic violence situation is “Are you with your abuser?” The second thing I would do is tell them to contact the authorities, and tell them to ask for a pizza.
Asking for a pizza lets the police know that they are in a domestic violence situation, and that they need to go to that address to see what’s going on. Also, I will give them the information to 211 and to the Domestic Violence Abuse Line.
Some questions that are very important in my mind and heart that I always ask are “Are you ready to leave your abuser?”, and “Are you okay mentally, physically and emotionally?”, or “What made you get to the point that you needed help?”
For me, it is very important to get to the bottom line of the young lady or young man (yes, we do have women that are abusers) who is going through domestic violence. Since I’ve been in Charlotte, I have learned that there are many men here that go through domestic violence as well. Whether their abuser is another male or a woman, it’s still domestic violence towards them.
Like I said before, it took for me to be in that situation to want to help someone else in need. When my ex-husband left me, he took me and my babies to a hotel for two weeks, and told me to make it the best way I could. I became very vigilant about raising my kids.
I was jobless at the time, and he left me for another woman. I got a job at a local Walmart in Atlanta, and over drafted my bank account every two weeks, just to make sure my kids and I had a roof over our heads.
I did this for a year, and made a vow to God that, if I made it through this situation and could help someone else, I would bend over backwards to make sure that’s what I did, whether it’s a ride to the grocery store, a place to stay, or just being someone to talk to.
I have even partnered with the Seventh Day Adventist, and they are ready and available to provide Bibles to anyone who needs help. They minister to individuals and support me and my organization.
If anyone needs to reach me, I can be reached by email or Google Voice.
Thanks,
April Henry-Wood
Owner of Wood Haven, Inc
woodhaveninc7@gmail.com
(770) 299–9508
