Cooper carries on memory of daughter

LYNN – On Sunday Betty Cooper will do what she has done each spring for the last 10 years, participate in the Walk for HAWC, Healing Abuse Working for Change, although it never gets any easier for her.”Honestly, no, it really doesn’t get any easier because (Cheryl Senn) was murdered in a bad way,” she said.Senn is Cooper’s daughter and she died in 1997 after her husband of 14 years stabbed her 29 times. Cooper said he was jealous that her daughter was back in school and getting her life on track. She still carries a worn photo of her girl in her wallet and said she walks because she doesn’t want anyone to forget Cheryl.The Walk for HAWC raises funds for domestic abuse programs for the organization that has been delivering free services to victims of domestic violence since 1978.Sunday Cooper will walk with family as she always does but she is not sure yet if it will include the four grandsons who Senn left behind.”It’s hard for them,” she said. “I only ask them once because I don’t want to make them sad.”She cannot, however, help but brag about her boys.”They are the best grandsons, so well mannered,” she said. “They’re grown men now, they’ve all finished school and they stick together. I’ve had no problems with them ever.”Cooper said considering what the boys, who are now ages 24, 25, 26 and 27, have been through and given dropout statistics she considers it a blessing that all four graduated from high school.”That is a big thing,” she said. “And two went to college.”Cooper admitted that walking is hard for her too because it forces her on some level to relive her daughter’s murder.”I still go to therapy twice a week and this happened in 1997,” she said.It is her faith that keeps her going, she said. At her church, Cathedral of Faith, Cooper is a member of the choir and attends weekly bible classes.”They help me a lot,” she said. “If it weren’t for God I wouldn’t even be here.”The walk takes place Sunday on the Salem Commons. Registration begins at 9 a.m. and the walk/run begins at 12 p.m. For more information or to donate or even register check out www.hawcdv.org.Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].