SAN ANTONIO -- At 25 years old, Kristine Meza was studying to be a nurse. She was a daughter, a big sister, a role model.
And a victim of domestic violence.
Her story resonates with many families and students at San Antonio College, where she studied.
Her mother, Laura Acevedo gets the question all the time: where does she get the strength to talk about one of the darkest moments in her life?
Kristine was just beginning a promising journey working towards her career goals while also making sure she was an inspiration to her little sisters.
"She did all the right things. She came to me. She left him," Acevedo said.
Kristine’s life was taken in 2011 when her ex-boyfriend shot her outside her home.
"To lose a child in any way is just, I can't even put it into words. But to lose her the way we did, you are left with your hands up in the air. What could I have done?" her mother said.
More than five years later, a moment before a memorial was revealed, there was a moment of silence at Kristine's old school.
Her mother, along with District Attorney Nico LaHood removed the covering to reveal a message carved in stone that says "No more violence, no more silence," with a deeper message that Kristine wasn't alone.
"One of our students had to drop out because of a domestic violence situation," said Dr. Helen Vera with San Antonio College.
Violence touches too many of Dr. Vera's students, who looked through about 25 scholarship applications at SAC, most of them from women touched by violence, themselves.
The Battered Women and Children's Shelter says that in Bexar County one in three people are domestic violence victims and that two-thirds are children.
"Hope through something like this people are listening, not just victims but the abusers," said Acevedo, who lives by the message carved into the memorial.
It's the same message found on the organization she launched in her daughter's honor: The Kristine Meza Foundation.
Along with SAC, which has a network in place to help victims, they are coming together to break the silence.
You can reach the Battered Women and Children's Shelter at (210) 733 - 8810.
You can also contact specific police substations:
Main Station - 315 South Santa Rosa - (210) 207-2141
Central Substation - 515 S. Frio - (210) 207-4013
East Substation - 3635 E. Houston - (210) 207-2062
North Substation - 13030 Jones Maltsberger - (210) 207-8129
Prue Rd Substation - 5020 Prue Rd - (210) 207-2201
South Substation - 711 W. Mayfield - (210) 207-8701
West Substation - 7000 Culebra - (210) 207-7916
And the Bexar County Family Justice Center located 1123 N. Main, Suite 100 - (210) 210-631-0100.