KENNEBUNK — Sunny skies, warm temperatures and a slight breeze made for a perfect morning to run or walk for a special cause.
About 350 to 400 people signed up to put one foot in front of the other at Nicole’s Run, which benefits Caring Unlimited, York County’s domestic violence agency.
Nicole Oliver was 24 when she was shot and killed by her husband in their Wells home in July 2007. T.J. Oliver then killed himself. The couple had two young boys.
And for the past three years, people have been gathering at Lord’s Point near Mother’s Beach to run or walk five kilometers, about three miles, in her memory.
Organizers say the event and the Jan. 1 Atlantic Plunge help raise needed funds to assist those suffering from domestic abuse in York County.
Among the walkers and runners were sisters Gayle Cluff of Kennebunk and Sandra Sepalveda of Boston and a friend, Diane Derosier of Wells.
Cluff was at one time the director of a cosmetology school, where T.J. Oliver learned to be a barber.
“He was one of my students. I was shocked and sad (at what had taken place),” said Cluff. She was making the walk for a second year.
“My sister told me the story, said Sepalveda. “You hear these stories all the time and don’t understand why (abusers) to the things that they do ”¦ It was a terrible thing. Some women are desperate and stay in insane situations or have nowhere to go so raising money for a safe haven is good.”
“It is for a good cause,” said Derosier.
Nicole Oliver had tried to leave the marriage before that fatal day in July 2007, but her devotion to her sons and her conviction they should live with their father made her return, even though she had, at one point, left for a year, family members said following the deaths.
This time however, Nicole had moved out, had begun taking nursing classes at York County Community College, was working full time and raising the couple’s two children.
Friends and family members believed that Nicole went to see her husband the night before they were found dead in the house because he had offered to help her financially with the apartment she was renting for herself and the children.
— Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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