Marvee Singletary remembers the night she says her former partner smashed a ceramic pot on her face, leaving a gash under her right eye that required 11 stitches and knocked out a front tooth.
“There had never been any domestic violence before that,” Singletary explains. “That was the first and only incident.”
She says the attack not only damaged her physically, but mentally and emotionally, too, as she realized she could no longer trust her attacker.
“It’s like having a rug pulled from under you.”
For a while, she says she didn’t want to meet anybody or get to know anyone. “You have to train yourself to heal from that and not stay in that place of being afraid of people because everybody’s not the same.”
Singletary had one class left for her associate’s degree in accounting at Greenville Tech when the incident happened.
“I had gotten to a point where I started to smile in pictures and things. And then it was taken,” Singletary says. “I’m trying to get at least as close as possible to what I used to look like.”
Her victim’s advocate at Greenville Police Department connected her to the RISE program, a new project from the Carolinas Center for Cosmetic Surgery in Greenville that seeks to raise awareness about domestic violence in the region and help local survivors heal through free restorative care.
Singletary is the program’s first recipient.
Dr. Waheed Mohamed, an oral surgeon and cosmetics specialist with the RISE program, began with preparing Singletary for a tooth implant and working to smooth her facial scarring on Aug. 11. It’ll take a few months for the area in her mouth to heal to place the implant in, Mohamed says.
“I think if you’re able to use the skills or education that you have to be able to help people,” Mohamed says while discussing the RISE program. “I don’t think there’s anybody who wouldn’t take that advantage and try to help someone if it changes their life or if it helps change their life. It’s a little thing that we can do. But it means a lot to someone else.”
Though Singletary is the first recipient, Mohamed hopes to expand the initiative further.
Right now, Singletary is trying to get her life back not just for her, but for her 9-year-old daughter and her almost 2-year-old son. She graduated from Greenville Tech in May, and she’s started making and selling dreamcatchers.
“If you do find yourself in this situation, understand that we all make mistakes, and sometimes trusting the wrong people is one of them,” Singletary says. “But do not put yourself at-fault. Because it’s not your fault, you didn’t cause that to happen. And you didn’t deserve that.”
For resources for domestic violence victims, visit https://www.greenvillesc.gov/1258/Domestic-Violence. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.
