Editor’s note: This is part four in a weekly series about families impacted by United Way.

MONROE

Kathy Clyburn came home to find her ex-husband hiding in the shadows of her bedroom.

He hadn’t hit her in four years, but threatened her life that night. She went to the police department, where an officer told her to call Turning Point.

“I thought that I could love him into changing,” she said. “I was a fool.”

Clyburn took her husband back seven or eight times before taking her now 15-year-old daughter with her to Turning Point, a United Way domestic violence shelter for women and children. She stayed for five and a half months last spring.

“I went there as an escape. I didn’t realize what all they offered until I got there.”

When Clyburn was a teenager, her mother took her to Turning Point to volunteer. Clyburn helped sort clothes, but had no idea it offered counseling and an array of other services.

“I didn’t know what to expect. ... I was kind of apprehensive because I’ve always been a person that does it on my own. I’ve been very independent all my life.”

Clyburn said the women there put her mind at ease and made her feel like part of a family. “I didn’t see myself as being homeless while I was living there,” she said. “I felt myself as having a secure place to stay.”

Clyburn was married for 16 years before leaving her husband. He used drugs and drank a lot, and “you didn’t know if you was walking on eggshells or not.” Clyburn was constantly afraid of doing or saying something to set him off.

Even after they separated, her ex-husband made a copy of her daughter’s house key and had a habit of walking in “like he lived there.”

At Turning Point, she met many other women in the same position, some less fortunate. Some women came to the shelter with only the clothes they were wearing, she said. She counts herself lucky for getting her things out of the house before her husband was released from jail. Some of her church members helped.

Nearly two years later, Clyburn is back in school and looking for a job. She also takes care of her oldest daughter’s son, but volunteers at Turning Point’s Second Chance Boutique in her spare time. Proceeds from the boutique go back to the shelter’s expenses.

“I thank God for Turning Point being there because it made a change in my life. It made me see that I didn’t have to live that way anymore. I didn’t have to be in a relationship anymore with someone that abuses me.”

Turning Point can house up to 42 people; director Naomi Herndon said 138 women and 171 children have sought shelter there this year. When it reaches capacity, some women are turned away and referred to another shelter. Other women do not live at the shelter but come in for counseling or court advocacy.

Herndon estimates that the agency will see another 60 people by the end of the year for a total of about 370 clients.

When she was working, Clyburn donated a certain amount of her paycheck to United Way. She didn’t know much about the agencies it went to and had no idea Turning Point was part of United Way.

Now familiar with the agency, she doesn’t hesitate to say she will donate again once she finds a job.

Although her ex-husband is out of jail, “My daughter and I have peace.” Clyburn has moved and moved on, and as for her ex-husband, “I don’t have to be scared anymore. I’ve put it in God’s hands.”

For others who do not yet donate to United Way, Clyburn encourages it, even if it’s just a little.

“That little bit can make a big difference. ... You don’t ever know who you’re helping. You might think you’re helping someone else and in the long run, you’re helping yourself.”