Editor's note: the names of domestic abuse victims have been changed to protect the innocent.
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Mabel Bronson's eye looks better than it has in three weeks. Blood surrounds her hazel iris, and her eye socket is rimmed with faint purplish-blue bruising that seeps down her right cheek, giving the slightly swollen skin a brown hue.
"I must look like the living dead," she says while looking at her nose with her right eye, exposing the full amount of blood that surrounds her iris.
She looks like a badly beaten boxer after a title bout. Although three weeks old, the bruises still look fresh. She walks with a limp in her right leg and a grimace on her face. Worn down mentally and emotionally, Bronson is unable to look directly at anyone for more than a second.
Despite her bruises, Bronson, with her gaunt stature and meek demeanor, is anything but a prize fighter; she's a domestic violence victim.
Models stand like mannequins next to furniture as they wait to take the stage Tuesday night. Their perfect skin glistens in the dim light as they methodically walk on to the stage to strut their clothing.
Clad in vintage outfits, the models weren't representing Gucci or Dior; they were representing women like Bronson at the Second Annual Vintage Now Fashion Show.
The show helped raise money for Safe House, a not-for-profit agency that provides shelter and legal assistance to domestic violence victims.
Safe House was started in 1991 by a grassroots group of citizens whose goal was to provide a safe refuge to women and their children involved in domestic violence. It operates a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week hotline for abuse victims and a shelter that can accommodate up to 22 people.
The agency receives money from taxes on marriage certificates and divorces and from state and local grants. The shelter's operating budget is roughly $700,000 and 35 percent of that comes from federal and state grants, said Safe House for Women executive director Linda Garner.
In September, the shelter applied for $50,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Emergency Shelter Grant program, which provides homeless people with basic shelter and essential supportive services. Missouri has $150,000 from the program to distribute to entities throughout the state, Garner said.
If the shelter receives the grant, it would allocate the money to utilities, repairs, its 24-hour hot line, hotel stays for victims when the shelter is too crowded, security and food for its clients, Garner said. The shelter has received as much as $7,500 in grants in past years, Garner said. The shelter will learn if it received the grant this month.
In addition to applying for grants, the shelter also holds fundraisers, like Tuesday's fashion show, which Garner hoped would attract 500 to 600 people, roughly double the amount of attendees at last year's show, which raised $3,500, according to Garner.
Garner said the organization is always looking for funding to keep the shelter and its other services going. Cash donations have slowed because of the economy, she said.
"I constantly worry about not having enough supplies for victims," Garner said. "I look under every rock there is. You never know when new sources will become available."
On Sept. 21, Bronson's husband of 13 years punched her right eye so hard that she flew eight feet across their living room and tore cartilage in her knee, leaving her barely able to climb stairs. The single blow left her deaf in her right ear and made her right eye swell to almost the size of a hockey puck. The attack was unprovoked, Bronson said.
"It hurt so bad," she said.
As Bronson lay dazed on her living room floor in front of the fireplace, her husband attempted to drag her somewhere before she came to and began screaming for help.
"I thought he was going to kill me," Bronson said, struggling to contain her emotions. "He was going to flat kill me."
Bronson was able to get away from her husband by crawling out to her home's deck and into the backyard where she made her way to the sideyard.
"I crawled through everything, including dog feces," Bronson said.
The two boys who mow Bronson's lawn found Bronson during her escape and called the police. They were driving by the home when they noticed the yard looked shaggy and stopped to trim it up unannounced, Bronson said.
When the police arrived and arrested her husband, he cooperated with officials.
Once her husband was arrested, Bronson sought legal help from Safe House for Women. Safe House court advocate Becky Holloway assisted Bronson in getting a yearlong restraining order against her husband and is helping comfort her during the legal process.
"I couldn't have made it through without her at all," Bronson said. "Safe House is always open for me."
Safe House for Women has seen success in raising money, Garner said, but the number of people it helps has grown while funding has stayed the same.
In 2009, the hotline received 579 calls and the shelter, which is in an undisclosed location in Cape Girardeau, housed 83 clients. Last year, the hotline received 721 calls and the shelter housed 75 clients. This year, the hotline is on pace to meet last year's mark with 656 calls through Oct. 13. The shelter has housed 63 clients this year and is currently at capacity.
"The demand and supply are two very different things," Garner said of the resources the agency offers.
Shelters in Ellington, Mo., Mauldin, Mo., Festus, Mo., Perryville, Mo., and Poplar Bluff, Mo., are all full as well. In Cape Girardeau County, a total of 1,817 calls of reported domestic violence were made to law enforcement in 2010. Missouri provided 51,092 women, children and men with domestic violence services.
Nationally, 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner every year, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. A third of women homicide victims are killed by their intimate partners, according to the coalition.
Cape Girardeau shelter director Allison Leonard said the increase in domestic violence stems from the poor economy and the shelter is unable to take as many clients each year because many are unable to afford a home.
Clients in the shelter come from all socioeconomic backgrounds, Leonard said. Almost 40 percent of victims in the shelter are between ages 20 and 29, and almost half of the victims come from a household that makes less than $5,000 a year. Of the 63 clients to stay in the shelter this year, 45 were white and 16 were black.
Most victims have one or two children when they come to the shelter, and the average stay lasts roughly a month, Leonard said. Clients are assigned to rooms upstairs and share one bathroom. The shelter provides victims with donated toiletries, bedding, food and clothing.
"Sometimes they'll just come here with just the clothes on their back," Leonard said.
Victims are allowed to stay for however long they need to, but the poor economy has kept many there for longer than the average month, Leonard said. Because of the extended stays and lack of beds, the shelter occasionally turns people away or puts them up in hotels until beds become available.
Mabel Bronson has not seen or talked to her husband since he hit her in September. Since his arrest, he has posted a $7,500 cash-only bond and has attempted to go home and collect his belongings, Bronson said.
Bronson got a yearlong ex parte restraining order Oct. 13 and hopes to never see her husband again. She has already started filing paperwork for a divorce.
"The worst part is the constant fear," she said. "I'm constantly scanning over my shoulder. He has made me so afraid."
Holloway, the only court advocate at Safe House, helped Bronson get her ex parte and will continue to support her throughout the legal process. Several victims do not have lawyers and rely on Holloway's assistance to ensure safety and due process during court proceedings.
"I've seen victim's during their deepest, darkest, scariest moments," Holloway said.
Holloway helps gather police reports and other documents for cases, as well as ensuring victims get compensated if they miss work with injuries sustained in an incident.
Cape Girardeau domestic violence cases are heard by Associate Circuit Judge Scott Lipke on Thursday morning in Common Pleas Court. Lipke said he grants several ex parte restraining orders, but would like to hear the other side of the story more often.
When both parties show up in a domestic violence case, Lipke said the courtroom can be intimidating.
"It can be a scary thing when the petitioner and the respondent are standing just feet apart," he said. "There's sometimes banter between the two parties that's meant to hurt."
Although his Thursday morning hearings are often quick, Lipke said dealing with domestic violence on a weekly basis makes him wonder what victims are going through.
"It opens your eyes for sure," Lipke said. "I can't help but sit back and think what that's like physically and emotionally."
To get a restraining order against a domestic abuser, Lipke suggests being as specific as possible on the petition and include times and dates of incidents.
Bronson did just that. She took pictures of her swollen eye on her phone and showed them to Lipke.
With the restraining order and pending divorce, Bronson said she is ready to move on. She plans to move out of state soon and start a new job. Although she'll soon be getting a new start, Bronson said she will continue to look over her shoulder.
"I'll never turn my back on a man again," Bronson said. "But he's not going to get a chance to kill me. It's not going to happen."
psullivan@semissourian.com
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44 North Lorimier Street, Cape Girardeau, MO
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