DOVER-FOXCROFT – There were tears Thursday at the 15th annual Speakout and Candlelight Vigil sponsored by Womancare-Aegis.

Some were in memory of six family members, friends or strangers who died from domestic violence in Maine between October 2002 and September 2003. Other tears were on the faces of victims who were thankful they managed to escape the domestic abuse with their lives.

It was an emotional time, an event held in October to spotlight National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time to remember those who died and a time to rejoice over those whose lives were spared.

Maine Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara was scheduled to speak Thursday, but canceled because of an emergency meeting in Augusta.

His absence, however, was soon forgotten as several women spoke during the hour-long Speakout on the impact domestic abuse had on them, the hold it had on their family, and their struggle to become free and safe. Unplanned, their talks were accompanied by sirens that blared from police vehicles and firetrucks that were participating in a homecoming parade through town. It was an unsettling reminder to some.

One woman spoke about a foster sister who was sexually abused as the state moved her from foster home to foster home. No one believed her when she spoke of the sexual abuse, she said. The speaker said the young woman later married, but could never rid herself of the memories of the abuse, so she tried to numb herself through the years with drugs, alcohol and sex. Her life ended at 43 when she was found murdered in her home. “So many people failed her,” the speaker said.

Others spoke about the importance of having an agency like Womancare-Aegis to help them through the legal hurdles and to keep them safe. “This legal system is not protecting me and my family,” said a woman, who left Florida to find refuge in Maine. Her husband followed her, she said, and now her children lie awake at night worrying that their father will kill her. “All we want is to rebuild our family [without him] and not feel threatened,” she said. “I just hope I’m not on one of those T-shirts next year.”

The T-shirts she referred to lined the walls of the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church hall and represented lives taken by domestic abuse over the years. The sizes of the shirts varied depending on the person killed. A tiny white shirt adorned with a teddy bear represented the memory of a 21-month-old Dexter baby, who was shot and killed. A medium shirt across the hall hung in memory of a young Dover-Foxcroft woman who was deliberately run over with a motor vehicle.

“Abuse robs us of many, many things, including the ultimate thing – life itself,” one speaker said.