On 'Oprah,' a Wife's Tale of Terror
It Was Two Months Before She Looked at Her Face. Yesterday, She Showed It to the World.
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Thursday, May 4, 2006
Her face is splotched with tender pink patches, her right ear is half-missing and her hands are covered with charred, fragile skin. Yvette Cade, the Prince George's County woman who was set on fire by her husband last year, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show yesterday for the entire hour and described her living horror.
She did not spare the graphic details.
Cade wears a mask 23 hours a day to prevent scar tissue from forming. She pulls on a pressure garment to keep her skin from becoming bumpy. Sometimes, she can't bear the pain of sliding it on.
"My arms, they're sometimes hard to move," said Cade, 32. "I go to physical therapy to try not to let my arms get stuck. My ears melted. I don't have my earlobe. But I can hear."
Cade was set ablaze by her estranged husband Oct. 10 at the T-Mobile store in Clinton where she was working. Roger B. Hargrave was convicted last week of attempted murder.
Apart from the Winfrey show, Cade has not spoken publicly since the incident, other than at her trial, at the request of Prince George's prosecutors and the judge, said a sister, Shereen Jackson.
Cade was poised and calm, sitting next to Winfrey on a pale yellow love seat. She was expressive with her big, brown eyes and frank honesty.
She wore a black suit and slacks, with a blue shirt underneath, and white tennis shoes. Through most of the show, she kept her hands in her lap and her feet crossed at the ankles.
Her fingers are so damaged they do not allow her to use buttons or zippers.
Winfrey held her up as an example of the violence that can occur in abusive relationships.
Cade said she has had no contact with Hargrave since he attacked her. Two days before his trial, though, she got a call from jail and believes he was trying to reach her.
"Ten forty-seven at night, I get a collect call from a correctional institute. I couldn't believe it," Cade said. "What would he have to say to me? I was supposed to be dead."
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