BLANCHE KIRKLAND

In hiding, family of achievers yearns for success

Blanche Kirkland (center), 38, with her five children.

By CARLOS FRÍAS
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Her name is Blanche Kirkland because it has to be. Because if her real name got out, the husband who has threatened to kill her might find her. Again.

It has been two years since Kirkland was last discovered by the man who was a Georgia fugitive and has a long list of convictions, including robbery and battery. But his words the day he caught up with her last still ring in her mind: “If you ever try to serve me with divorce papers, that’ll be your death warrant.”

In hiding, Kirkland struggles to remake her life, while raising five children and one grandson. “It feels like the walls are closing in,” she said. “It feels like the past I worked so hard to get away from has caught up with me.”

For a time, it looked like Kirkland, 38, had shaken a childhood that might have doomed others in her place. She was abused by both parents and bounced around foster homes. But she put herself through school, became a certified medical assistant, and focused on home health care for the elderly.

It was the sole source of income for her young family. But while helping one of her clients into the shower in 2003, she fell and herniated several disks in her back. Being rear-ended in a 2010 car accident counteracted years of physical therapy, and she has been disabled since March 2010.

Blanche is in the Victim Protection Program in Palm Beach County, hiding from a husband who threatened to kill her.

Now, the fine balance she maintained to care for children ages 19 to 1 — three of whom have been hospitalized nine times in the last year for severe asthma — has been lost.

She needs surgery on her back that she can’t pay for. She needs a car to replace the one she had to sell to pay bills. She needs an attorney who will help sever the ties to her abusive husband. She needs therapy and guidance to help her make good choices for her family.

Her children could use clothes and educational assistance. Her 16-year-old daughter, a talented artist with a 3.8 GPA, loves drawing and photography, and dreams of attending the G-Star School of the Arts or a similar arts-based school. Her 15-year-old son, who suffers from asthma, is mechanically inclined and loves educational toys for building. Learning disabled, he could use tutoring to achieve a goal of becoming an architect.

Her 13-year-old daughter loves music, dance, fashion, and could use clothes and a venue to foster her interests. Her 5-year-old son loves monster trucks. And her oldest daughter, 19, who has a 1-year-old son, works in a fast-food chain but would like to go to college. She needs clothes and toys for her toddler.

Meanwhile, Kirkland lives with the fear that her estranged husband will make good on his promise. “I can’t explain how we make it,” she said. “Only by the grace of God.”

BLANCHE’S WISH
Blanche needs therapy, legal guidance and a vehicle to transport her children. Her family needs gift cards for clothes and groceries, a toy truck and clothes for the 5-year-old boy son (size 6x, size 1 shoes) and clothes for the 13-year-old daughter (size 14, size 8 shoes). The 15-year-old son, an asthmatic with learning disabilities, could use tutoring to achieve a goal of becoming an architect (size 29 waist, 10 in shoes). The 16-year-old daughter, a talented artist with a 3.8 GPA, dreams of attending G-Star School of the Arts (she wears a size medium, size 9 shoes). The oldest daughter, 19, could use clothes and toys for her 1-year-old son and a scholarship for higher education for herself.

NOMINATED BY: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Palm Beach and Martin Counties