Brutally battered on a June night five years ago, Joi Partain became known as the “Golf Club Girl” for her ex-boyfriend’s weapon of choice.
Now, people tend to call her something else: Empowered. Beautiful.
It has become the name that Partain, 27, has given to her own nonprofit organization — EmpoweredandBeautiful.com, officially approved this week — a vehicle she will use to help other survivors recover from the physical trauma of domestic violence.
For Partain, it has been a long journey.
The 2009 attack caused so much blood loss she nearly died on the scene. She suffered 22 broken bones, lost an eye, spent an initial two months in the hospital and has undergone 13 surgeries to make her face pretty again.
She either wears an eye patch — typically something exotic, such as the black-sequined model — or a prosthetic eye. The latter bothers her, though, because it doesn’t move in sync with her remaining eye.
“Every time you look in the mirror, you’re reminded of what happened,” she said. “I’ve reached the point where I kind of like my eye patch — it’s who I am now — but without it I still get upset. I see the scars and my [missing] eye looks zombie-like to me.”
Despite her private insecurities, Partain has become a public inspiration to survivors. Tammy Douglass, executive director of Help Now Inc., the Osceola County domestic-violence shelter and prevention program, said Partain is both an advocate and a leader.
“The first time Joi spoke to an audience, she was still receiving services from us, and I know she was very nervous,” Douglass said. “She was wearing sunglasses as she spoke, and at the end she took her sunglasses off, so you could see there was just an eye socket there. It was like baring her soul. From that moment on, I knew she was somebody who would have a big impact on the movement.”
Much of what makes Partain so engaging is her personality: bright, cheery, even funny.
“When you sport an eye patch,” she likes to say, “everything else has to look good, or you end up looking like a pirate.”
Partain had married at 17. By 21, she was living in Ocala with her infant daughter, separated from her husband. Her new boyfriend, Jonathan Pearson, soon revealed a violent streak, particularly when he drank. Partain broke off the relationship, but one night she was without a baby sitter and needed to cover a late shift at the local mall, where she was a sales clerk.
Since Pearson had never been violent toward the baby, she asked him to fill in — only to return home to discover him slouched on a sofa, surrounded by empty beer cans. She was furious.
The two argued, but when Partain crawled into bed, exhausted, she thought it had passed. The next thing she knew he was standing over her swinging a golf club — a driver — toward her face. He hit her with such force he broke the shaft and grabbed another, which he mangled while striking her repeatedly. In addition to battering her face, which required an immediate 12-hour surgery to piece back together, he broke bones in both her forearms all the way through.
Pearson, who told a judge he “just snapped,” is now serving a 15-year prison sentence for attempted murder. Partain moved back to Orlando after the sentencing.
“In Ocala, everyone knew about the case,” she said. “I’d stop to put gas in my car, and someone would be, like, ‘Oh, you’re that golf club girl.'”
The healing she found through Help Now moved her to want to do more. A year after the attack, she took the first of a dozen training courses to become an advocate — a job she now does part time for both the Osceola shelter and Harbor House in Orange County.
“She is a lovely girl and definitely a go-getter,” said Deborah Alessi, who founded the California-based Face Forward with her husband, a facial plastic reconstructive surgeon. He performed Partain’s two major facial surgeries, the second one just this spring. “Her case was horrific. Of course, I keep thinking every case we see is the worst — and then another happens.”
At first, Partain started EmpoweredAndBeautiful.com as a platform to share her story and offer information and emotional support to others. But the response from fellow survivors propelled her further.
“For women who have been through something like that, the physical reminders not only make others treat you differently, but it can change the way you feel about yourself,” said Dr. Ross Clevens, a Central Florida facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon, who does pro-bono work for domestic-violence victims. “Unfortunately, I think there are lots more women who would benefit than there are surgeons lending their time to help them.”
Partain hopes to change that. Not only is she partnering with Face Forward to raise money to cover the air fare, hotel stays, nursing and anesthesia costs of those surgeries in California, she wants to recruit local doctors, nurses, dentists and aestheticians so patients here won’t have to travel cross country for the procedures.
In two days of existence, her charity has raised $4,000.
“For me,” she said, “just doing this is empowering. Helping others helps me heal.”
ksantich@tribune.com or 407-420-5503
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