Christine Jenneiahn may be 85 years old but that doesn't mean she's an easy target. When a masked, armed man broke into her Idaho home threatening her and handcuffing her to a chair, she fought back, sustaining multiple gunshot wounds and ultimately killing the attacker.
AND she lived to tell the tale.
Elderly Woman Wakes Up to a Nightmare
Wooden chair and handcuffs used by armed assailant in home invasion in Idaho.
KSL News/Bingham County Sheriff's Office
It was 2 a.m. on March 13 when Christine woke up, shocked to find herself staring down the barrel of a loaded 9-mm pistol.
According to the Bingham County Sheriff's Office, the assailant, wearing a black ski mask and a camouflage jacket, broke in through a window.
After pistol-whipping her across the head, the man, later identified as 39-year-old Derek Condon, dragged her out of bed and down the hall to the living room where he handcuffed her to a wooden chair. With a gun to her head, Condon then demanded to know if there was anyone else in the house and where she kept the valuables.
Wanting to protect her adult son with disabilities who was sleeping downstairs, Christine lied and told him that she was alone.
Condon left her handcuffed in the living room while he went off in search of loot. Christine seized the opportunity. She lugged the chair to her bedroom, grabbed her .357 Magnum revolver from under her pillow, and then returned to the living room, hiding the gun in the couch cushions beside her.
Then, she waited.
At some point Condon returned, threatening to kill her. Terrified, Christine knew it was "now or never." She drew her gun and fired, striking him twice.
"Condon returned fire and emptied a 9 mm pistol into Christine striking her multiple times in her abdomen, leg, arm, and chest," states a report posted to the County Sheriff's Facebook page.
Condon crawled to the kitchen where he died of his wounds. Christine, still handcuffed to the chair and riddled with bullet holes, "fell to the floor." She remained there for 10 HOURS before her son finally came upstairs and gave her a phone so she could call 9-1-1.
Police arrived just after noon to find her son, David, standing in the doorway. Officers "provided life-saving measures on her" and rushed her to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls. She has since been released.
An Incredible Act of Bravery
The official incident report on a home invasion in Bingham County, Idaho.
Bingham County Sheriff's Office/Facebook
During their investigation, deputies discovered that Condon was suffering from mental health issues and PTSD from the time he served in the U.S. Marine Corps.
In an interview with police, Christine revealed that she didn't want to shoot Condon but she felt like she didn't have a choice. She feared for both her life and her son's life.
"I'm a very nice old lady but you can only push somebody so far."
Christine Jenneiahn via KSL News
As for the prosecuting attorney's office, they won't be pressing any charges.
"This case presents an easy analysis of self-defense and justifiable homicide. It also presents one of the most heroic acts of self-preservation I have heard of," Prosecuting Attorney Ryan W. Jolley wrote.
Summarizing the harrowing events he said, "He [Condon] had told Christine he would kill her multiple times. He had broken into her home in the middle of the night, handcuffed her to a chair, and struck her with his firearm. Her disabled son was downstairs in his room."
"That Christine survived this encounter is truly incredible. Her grit, determination, and will to live appear to be what saved her that night."
Prosecuting Attorney Ryan W. Jolley
Not to mention, never mess with Mama.
In the face of extreme danger, Christine didn't let her age or fear prevent her from saving her life and that of her son. She did what any mother would do...fiercely protect her child at all costs. Christine's heroic actions don't just speak to the power of self-preservation, they are a true testament to a mother’s love. And there is nothing in this world more powerful.
*Featured image contains photo by Anna Shvets and Rafael Classen rcphotostock.com
Breaking Through the Pain: A Lotus Must Grow in the Mud
Pain has the capacity to move us into unknown emotional depths. It is one of the most powerful and transformational forces that we all must experience in our lifetimes. We cannot avoid or shun pain -- it is something that poignantly binds us all and is divinely sown into our existence. We cannot hate what hurts us, because that only damages us more. We can choose to mend and exalt ourselves only by using all our inherent mastery to heroically dig our exit through pain.
A Lotus Must Grow in the Mud
In a world where being positive reigns supreme, it has become distinctly challenging to express our pain. For the most part, we fear to even face it or the sadness it carries and that sinks itself so silently yet turbulently into our soul. We hide our inner grief beneath a reluctant smile, yet our eyes are the mirror of our hearts and speak the truth of what lays within.
We deflect and disguise our pain when all it truly wants is to be seen, heard, understood and accepted. We hurt ourselves and in turn unintentionally cast the same fate onto others that we care for. It becomes a cycle of sorrow that we can only begin to break once we challenge our own beliefs and find the freedom of expression to give a voice to our muted cries and echoes of pain.
A lotus must grow in the mud
Beyond the pain lies an existential fact -- we are all unconditionally vulnerable. We fear pain because it highlights to us just how fragile and exposed we truly are. Pain and sadness permeate the surface level and take us on a journey into deep waters; they do not distinguish between the brave and fearful, the rich and poor, or the loved and lonely.
Our task through the darkest of times is to find a way to swim through the murky waters of hurt, sorrow, mental and emotional pain and come out the other side, stronger and more beautiful through the internal noise of the transition. In Buddhism, the lotus flower is a spiritual symbol of growth and enlightenment, its colorful open petals rising strong on long stalks through the muddy waters that inspired her seeds to bloom. Just like the lotus flower, we can elevate and rise, bond and beautify through shadows and darkness.
The purpose of pain
Pain has a purpose. It is unfiltered, raw, and beats you down to the very core of what keeps you ticking. It smashes you open -- but you are not broken. We can never be weakened by what shakes us violently from the inside out, only made stronger. When we perceive pain or falling into its depths as a weakness, then we lose all power to gain the evolution and wisdom it can offer us. When we run or try to escape pain, it is like we are running from ourselves.
All change requires an instigator and something to spark a shift within you. Dark times drive a dissolution of everything, allowing for something greater to be born. When we numb what we feel we only drive those emotions further into the shadows, which only intensifies and magnifies their propensity. When we embrace what has hurt us, we can shine a light on our inner wounds, uncover them from their haze, and take our power back.
We can only begin to heal once we accept the destruction and nakedly face our despair. We allow it to unfold within us so we can repair our inner turmoil with an "emotional glue" that is laced with strength, courage and pure compassion. You are not worth less because of your pain -- you are worth more in spite of it.
Finding the beauty through the pain
There is tenderness and wisdom in a heart burst wide open on the journey through pain. To endure and override the eclipse of painful circumstance gives birth to an enhanced level of sensitivity and understanding of who you are and all that you stand for. It inspires a regeneration and rebirth within you.
We are never the same after pain, but we are warriors of light and hope who rise from its remnants. We find the beauty and grace of sorrow when we can breathe its release -- and choose to let it go. The roots of that sadness and grief remain -- it is a sticking point where the hurt still hurts just enough to remind you that it was there; a less visible ghost of what existed. Every experience flows within us because we are the sum of all our parts, even the deepest pockets of pain.
Moving lovingly through our anguish is how we mend
Pain can consign us into an isolated cocoon that becomes like a swathe of a grieving second skin. Rather than allowing it to consume us, we can intuitively and consciously move with it and through it; embrace its presence and gently emerge out of its hold.
You are not your pain. You are the one with the intrinsic chemistry of love that is needed for you to break through your pain to a new dawn. You are like the proud and colorful lotus, elevating through the darkest depths to stand taller and stronger, facing the sun.