Yeardley Love was a senior at the University of Virginia and played on the lacrosse team. She planned to go to New York for a year after college and then attend law school. She had it all figured out.

Then her ex-boyfriend George Huguely beat her to death in her dorm room. Now what do you do if you are her mother, left without a daughter?

She did the only thing she could do and that’s speak out against domestic violence and the dangers of it using her story as an example.

“It is a good example of a real life situation and shows people that domestic violence is not the answer to relationship problems,” said Zach Wisner (’16) who was excited to hear Sharon Love, Yeardley’s mother, speak.

After Love told her story with the students she shared some scary statistics on domestic violence. Did you know 1 in 3 people in a relationship are experiencing or have experienced domestic violence?

Before Yeardley was murdered by Huguely, who also played on the lacrosse team, he was on a “downward spiral,” said Love and his teammates planned an intervention for him but they planned it for after the season; that was too late.

One thing that Love emphasized in her speech was seeing the signs of a domestic violence relationship and doing something about them.

“When you turn a blind eye to things, you don’t know what you’re unleashing on others,” said Love.

Students also shared how Love’s visit has changed their opinions on domestic violence.

“I didn’t really know that much about relationship violence and some of the statistics were really staggering and it made me realize how prevalent the issue is,” said Hadley Seufert (’15).