Help Us Start Anew After Fleeing a Toxic Space
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Update:
I am in desperate need of funds to help house me and my two children Quinn (7) and Connor (8) as I navigate a hugely messy divorce from an abusive husband.
On September 18, I was moderating a panel at the Michigan City, IN Library, about 193 miles from my home in Terre Haute, IN—when my soon-to-be ex-husband Donovan called the cops on me for kidnapping my own children. The kicker was that Donovan himself had my children Quinn and Connor with him at home. He thought he would get a Black woman killed by cops, but thankfully instead the cops were confused about the fact that 1. The kids weren’t even with me, and 2. A mother cannot kidnap her own children.
All of this began when I finally decided to divorce Donovan in March 2022 for a number of reasons, but the biggest being he was no longer the man I married. He had become quietly abusive, controlling, gaslighting, and much more. I’m a freelance writer who was just getting her first book deal and whenever I had a deadline or needed to get work done, my computer would mysteriously get a drink spilled on it or suddenly Donovan would orchestrate a conflict with the children I would then have to interrupt my day to resolve.
On the day I finally left, I was completing a set of reviews that needed to go up the next week. I told him this the night before and we agreed that I would spend that Sunday morning writing. I was awakened before 8 AM on that Sunday by my husband yelling loud enough to shake the house. He was yelling at our 8 and 9-year-olds about laundry. This man rarely did his own laundry. I spent that morning in a heated exchange about his treatment of the kids and trying to understand what bout the laundry had him heated. It became evident real quick that this was yet another tactic to interrupt my work. I left with the kids to go stay with my sister that same day. I realized he was actively sabotaging me and my career had been for a few years. That’s when I asked for a separation and filed for divorce.
When I moved out on March 3 with Quinn and Connor we depended on the kindness of family and friends for shelter, including spending a month with my sister. When my book advance came through on March 28, 2022, I immediately looked into a house with the littles. We moved in on April 2. I filed for divorce in June and continued working. Little did I know, my sister had been conspiring against me in the background and not only helped the landlord evict me, but she had been spreading lies and rumors about me to my entire family, effectively supporting my abusive ex instead of me.
After the kidnapping accusation, I was scared for my life that Donovan would try to get me killed by cops again so I was forced to leave the children with him as I began setting up a new life for Quinn and Connor in Denver. I knew the kids weren’t getting the level of care I provide, especially considering Donovan is a trucker and away from home a lot (my older 20-something children helped with childcare). But I also thought it better to have a living mother somewhere else than a dead one. That is until my children called me on January 30 to tell me they couldn’t stop throwing up and nobody was helping them. Turns out that the filthy conditions of the house led to a norovirus outbreak. I Doordashed food, ginger ale, and other things. And I called the police myself to see what rights I had to go rescue my kids. What they told me shocked the hell out of me: Since I was still married to Donovan and that is technically still my house, I always had the right to collect my kids and take them anywhere I wanted. My sister and her cop husband had lied to me about this as well.
When I arrived at the house on February 3 I was appalled to see the children had been sleeping on a bare mattress, covered in bed bugs. Both children’s little bodies were covered in bites and rashes and sores. Nobody had done Quinn’s hair in months. They were scared, traumatized, and starving. They hadn’t been properly bathed in i don’t know how long. And yet somehow my sister and ex’s narrative is that I am the unfit parent, I am crazy, and they have been promoting this to my entire family, including my parents who refused to answer my calls. But worse, nobody helped my babies when they were neglected. Instead, they lied and enabled the abuser.
Today, I am living on a shoestring as I try to keep the three of us sheltered and fed, and I really need financial help to stay afloat until the divorce is finalized. We drove to Denver in the middle of the night on February 3, after Donovan urged my 19-year-old son to put me out of the house by any means. My firstborn son commenced to choke me and push me toward a window. I could see in his eyes that the boy wanted to put me through that window. His father’s voice could be heard through the phone, even after it dropped on the floor. Donovan wanted me harmed and was not above using our son to do it. After finding that my family was in concert with this man and realizing I had nowhere to go, I put out a call on social media for support. So that we could flee to safety.
We made it to Denver. The car has finally given out though, with a major oil leak that I can’t even begin to fix. We are staying in temporary housing that’s paid by the week. I am living off the kindness of strangers, and I still desperately need your help.
Any financial help you can offer goes to our budget hotel stay, food, and clothes for my quickly growing children. Also, my car requires some significant repairs after all the extra driving I’ve had to do these past few months. The money will help us get set up properly in Denver until I find a job.
***I sit writing this coughing from COVID-19. Connor and Quinn are okay, but we are quarantined for the next 10 days. This further complicates our situation as nothing is leaving this room until we all have a negative test in 10 days.
Thank you so much for witnessing my story and for any help you can offer. Quinn, Connor, and I will forever be grateful for your kindness during one of the worst times in our lives.
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Original Text
So many of you want to know what's happening with me. Here it I. I am in desperate need of help. To fix my car, start over, protect my little kids, and begin establishing our shelter when we return to our new home state.
My kids and I have been through hell. My kids especially were stuck in a space where they were neglected, belittled, abused, and called out for help to deaf ears. They were in a city, a state full of people who so-called loved me, but no one came to their aid.
That's fine. Mama's got them. I need a little aid to ensure that my beautiful babies never have to cry out in pain and misery ever again.
I unblocked so many people so that you can hear my story. So you can see what Donovan Davis and Tamara McCollough have really been up to. So that my voice is louder than her contacts in law enforcement and his hysterics when they claim that I am a crazed, dangerous, mentally ill woman who kidnapped her kids and attacked her older son.
Once you hear my side, which not one of my family members asked for by the way, you will see the nonsense and where the danger really lies.
I'm not mentally unstable.
I just refuse to be your puppet.
I'm not crazy.
I just refuse to support your lies.
I did not kidnap my children.
I am protecting them from physical abuse, mental trauma, neglect, and being the pawns of two people who lost control over me.
My babies are not your playthings. And don't act as if you care. If you did, I wouldn't be the first adult asking why their aunt wants them back in a home that looks like the one in these pics. And why their father made his 9 y.o. son into a modern-day Cinderella.
The audio of a grown-ass man screaming at a 9 y.o. boy about nasty ass oily trucker laundry is disgusting.
And it's never happening again.
Oh, I have receipts for everything in this post and my video. Audio, video, photos.
I'm done being silent.
They can tell the police what you want. My voice will be heard.
Here's where you can support my two musketeers and me on our journey forward.
Here are the links I mentioned in the video.
My book deal for We Gone be Black Today: Explorations in Black Nerd Culture
The podcast episode that I wrote with Paul and the angel guys of Joy Road. My episode is "The Black Six"
https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Black-Six-Podcast/B0BMWL2QNL?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp
The article I wrote about my sister before I knew who she really was.
My post when this all started:
Amazon Wishlist
Organizer
Jonita Davis
Organizer
Englewood, CO