Imagine being four years old, cradled in your mother's arms. You are curled up next to her warm body on the couch, listening to music from The Wizard of Oz, reading your favorite bedtime story, Goodnight Moon. Everything in the house is still. It is very late, well past midnight, but you and your mother are awake, enjoying the solitude while your two brothers sleep in their rooms.

Imagining all of that is easy. Now try this:

Secure, next to your mother on that same couch, listening to the same music, you hear a loud bang at the back door. Heavy, quick footsteps make their way down the hall toward you. You instinctively move closer to your mother.

The stranger in the hallway gets closer. Then the stranger appears. He is no stranger at all. He is your father. But he doesn't look quite right. Daddy is holding a gun.

Little Elizabeth Bloy lived what some people can't even fathom. She is the four-year-old girl listening to The Wizard of Oz with her mother. She is the one who must live with the memory of that August night for the rest of her life.

Long before Elizabeth was born, her parents Gary and Susan Bloy dreamed of how wonderful it would be to have a family. While still dating, they talked about the perfect marriage and gorgeous children they would have. Susan believed Gary would be a supportive husband and a doting father, so when he finally proposed, she said, "Yes!"

Anticipating a future filled with love, Susan was shocked at the years following that walk down the aisle-abuse, intimidation, control. Gary also never spent much time with their children Hunter, Elizabeth, and Ramsey. In fact, when Elizabeth was born, Gary refused to believe she was his child, and for the first few months, he wouldn't even touch her.

While he never physically abused his children, they watched helplessly as he verbally abused and bullied their mother, leaving bruises on her heart and soul. Emotionally broken and financially broke, Susan was afraid the children might be Gary's next targets. She vowed to make sure that never happened.

One afternoon while Gary was at work, Susan and her children moved into a shelter for abused women. They left home with little more than the clothes on their backs. Susan knew that the most dangerous time for a woman in an abusive relationship is when she leaves, so Susan and her children stayed at the shelter until she felt they could safely be on their own.

After about four months, Susan found a home for the family-a place where they could start over without Gary. But Gary had other plans. Just a few weeks after they moved into their new home, he burst back into their lives.

On that night, he stood in the living room and stared at his wife and daughter. Gary's eyes were unfocused and glazed over. Elizabeth's blue eyes welled up with tears as she looked from the gun to her mother and then slowly to her father. She let out a blood-curdling scream, "No, Daddy, no!"

That scream brought Gary out of his trance. He bolted from the room, smashing the television with the gun as he ran out. Gary rushed out the same door he came in. He then put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

The commotion in the house was now gone. Things were once again still except for the tears and the soundtrack of The Wizard of Oz.