What Can I Do?

Details: 25 February 2011

She got into her car with her three children, one aged 14, the other a toddler and another in her womb. She knew she needed to leave but did not know where to go.

She was running from a man who wanted to kill her and their unborn baby. She only knew she wanted to save her unborn baby, her other two children and her own life.

"I need to drive," she thought, so drive she did. With her three children and the few bare necessities they could cram into their car, in a hurried fashion she started driving west. As the car sped down the road, their minds were spinning, the mother whose concern was getting away, the 14-year-old who pondered the unknown along with the loss of her friends, and the toddler who thought this was the longest ride she ever took, while the unborn baby’s heart kept beating and beating.

Meanwhile, halfway across the country, another 14-year-old young woman in Lincoln, Nebraska named Erin Williams wondered, "What can I do to help unborn babies and their mothers?"

Erin came up with the idea of creating a pro-life t-shirt to benefit St. Gianna Women’s Homes, a safe refuge for women escaping domestic violence and abortion named after her favorite saint, St. Gianna (who gave her life to save her unborn baby). "I want to be just like her!" she told me.

She designed the front of the shirt to say, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you," along with an outline of a heart with two baby feet within. On the back one finds a red cross with the words, "Pro-life Guard," and "Save the Unborn." Thanks to Father John Sullivan and Mrs. Holly Kruger, the principal at Blessed Sacrament School in Lincoln, this beautiful t-shirt is available to the entire school as a uniform option. Thanks to Msgr. Perkinton, a flyer will be sent to the Catholic Schools in the diocese for those who would like to purchase them while helping St. Gianna’s.

It is only by the Providence of God this woman is now in a safe temporary location here in Nebraska. When I told her she could stay at St. Gianna’s which will be open in just a few short months, she was filled with tears of joy. When I informed Erin that the proceeds from the sale of these t-shirts would be used to help this woman and her three children, she too was filled with joy.

I am thankful to Father John Sullivan, the superintendant of Blessed Sacrament, Mrs. Holly Kruger, the principal, Msgr. Perkinton, others who have helped with this project and especially Erin Williams, a special young woman.

I would also like to thank Erin’s mother, who said anyone can obtain them on the Blessed Sacrament website at blessedsacramentlincoln.com.

When asked why permission was given to students at Blessed Sacrament to wear these t-shirts, in lieu of their regular uniform tops, Mrs. Kruger responded, "These kids love them and want to wear them. It’s powerful when a middle school child is seen with a pro-life t-shirt as a witness to the sanctity and love for unborn life." Well said. St. Gianna, pray for us!!