The Domestic Abuse Women’s Network, also known as DAWN, organized an official “Hour of Remembrance,” focused on drawing attention to the incomprehensible — someone dying at the hands of an intimate partner.

The Oct. 24 event at the Kent Regional Library was dedicated to seven local women who lost their lives this year to domestic violence: Baerbel Roznowski (66, Federal Way), Nancy Floren (64, Kent), Debra Lynn Bonilla (38, Beacon Hill), Stephanie Campeau (48, White Center), Tracey Creamer (48, White Center), Eldora Earlycutt (46, Central District) and Jane Kariuki (42, Kent).

“Where there once was a future, that is replaced by hopelessness,” King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg told the audience, of the nightmare of being trapped in an abusive relationship. “Betrayal is what makes it such a deeply hurtful personal crime.”

The true measure of success in combating this elusive crime (often the victims don’t report it, or later recant) is to keep providing the assistance that gives them a place to heal and be protected, Satterberg said.

“It has to be longtime crime protection,” he explained, noting such change comes when society as a whole refuses to ignore what is going on behind closed doors. We don’t tolerate three-martini lunches or smoking — and that kind of societal expectation is what needs to happen when it comes to domestic violence, he noted.

Lee Dreschel, executive director of DAWN, spoke emphatically about not forgetting these women.

“We cannot bring these women back, but we can commit to ending domestic violence,” she said. “It’s a cultural problem and we have a lot of myths.”

In the years ahead, organizations like DAWN must continue to shed a light of hope to victims in the darkest places of family secrecy, and prosecutors must continue offering victims a way to fight back. That’s the only way society can move forward.