Safety

It isn’t every day that a simple phone call leads to a reunion, three decades in the making.

When we reached out to the owner of a local catering company to hire for an upcoming event, we didn’t expect to reconnect with Courtney—a former client whose life had once intersected with Bay Area Legal Services in a profound way. As it turns out, legal aid was a critical part of her success journey, and she graciously shared her story with us:

Courtney was a young adult when she entered a relationship that would derail her life. Though the relationship had started out well, her boyfriend soon turned physically abusive and she found herself fighting for her life. “I was trapped,” Courtney recalled, “not understanding that there was help.”

She was subjected to abuse for years. Then one day she made plans to escape. By this time, Courtney had two babies, their lives hanging in the balance.

“The night that I left, my neck was sprained, my skull was cracked, my nose was broken. I physically saw stars.” Courtney grew emotional as she recalled those awful times. “My pediatrician had just told me that my child, who was three months old, was failing to thrive, and that if I didn’t make a change she could have died. In all honesty, our lives were at risk: there was no safety. We were in such a dangerous place.”

With incredible bravery, Courtney fled with her children and found shelter at The Spring of Tampa Bay, where all three were provided with secure housing. The Spring connected Courtney with Bay Area Legal Services, which would become a vital resource on her path to safety.

Bay Area Legal provided Courtney with a skilled Family Law attorney who stood by her side in securing a restraining order that legally protected her from her abuser. 

Though a restraining order isn’t an instant solution to an abusive situation, it was the first step toward protection and healing for Courtney and her family. “That restraining order, not only did it help me immediately, but throughout the years when he would try to approach me at work or he would try to harass me going forward, I was able to stand on that and I was able to have something to back me up so that I could rebuild my life,” she said. 

Today, Courtney's life has been rebuilt—and then some. “Now I have three grown, thriving children. My life is wonderful. I run my own business.”

For years, she and her children have spoken publicly about their experiences as survivors of domestic violence, hoping that their story will help others. She even agreed to speak at the event she catered. 

“Had I not received help, and had it not been something where they could help me financially, then I would have just been stuck,” she said. “All of those things are so far in my past and yet, had I not had help then, I can’t imagine how long [it would have gone on] or what might have happened.”