“He held a knife to my throat . . . he broke my jaw, he threw a pipe at me, he bruised my ribs, he threw a vacuum cleaner at me,” said Sarah Augusta Jones, visibly shaken as she recounted experiences from her past relationship. “He is a real controlling, psychotic guy.”

Jones was 14 when she got pregnant the first time; her boyfriend was 19. But the two tried to make it work.

The couple had another son . . . but could not make their relationship work.

“I’d leave and sleep in parking lots,” said Jones, whose two sons are now 11 and 13.

She has since left the man, and knows that her life and her childrens’ lives are better for it.

But it was not easy.

“He threatened to chop off our son’s head if he said anything about the abuse,” Jones said. “He threatened to shoot us, to snipe us in the woods. . . . He still stalks my house, his dad stalks my house.”

Sarah Augusta Jones

But now, Jones said she and her kids are ready to move forward with their lives. The boys are doing well in school, and with a restraining order against her ex and full custody of the children, the family has a sense of closure on that violent chapter in their lives.

Photographer Donna Ferrato documented Jones’ story, and the stories of other domestic violence victims, in a photo exhibit titled I Am Unbeatable: Documenting and Celebrating Stories of Empowerment. Ferrato has long been passionate about photographing and encouraging victims of abuse, and published a book on the subject in 1991, Living With the Enemy.

“Everyone has the right to live free of violence,” Ferrato proclaims boldly on the project’s website, iamunbeatable.com.

“I really believe that if the world could look at women and see what they have gone through and understand their real stories, that we have a chance to change the way people think,” Ferrato said.

Ferrato’s work is helping change lives, Jones said.

“One lady came all the way from the UK just to see the exhibit,” Jones said. That woman, an aspiring photographer who says she is living in an abusive relationship herself, has a copy of Living With the Enemy and wanted to view the exhibit in person.

“Others have gotten out of abusive relationships because of the exhibit,” Jones said, adding that she would like many other universities to exhibit I Am Unbeatable.

Jones desperately wants to encourage others living with violence in their lives to know that they have the strength to change their situation, and that help is out there.

Photos courtesy Donna Ferrato

“The Murfreesboro Domestic Violence Program helped me a lot from the get-go. They’re really good people,” Jones said. “They have group therapy every week. There’s a section for kids, and seperate section for adults,” Jones said. “They have a shelter if people need it.

“But I didn’t want to go to the shelter,” Jones continued. “He would have used it against me (in custody hearings). How could I look like a responsible parent when I was living in a shelter?”

Dealing with the legal system was frustrating enough, Jones said.

“The judge kept saying she would give him another chance to see the kids, she was really lenient with him,” Jones said. “She keeps talking about how we can get back together as a family, like that is something that should happen.”

But today, finally, she is safe. She has sole custody of the kids, their father is not allowed to see them or her.

“In getting out, sometimes people go to worse things, but anything is being better about being stuck in the middle of [an abusive relationship],” Jones said. “Even though it’s going to be hard getting out, especially if they have kids, they need to show them they can be strong and not stand for that any more.”

For more information on the I Am Unbeatable photo project, visit iamunbeatable.com.

For more on the Murfreesboro Domestic Violence Program, visit dvpshelter.org or call (615) 896-7377.

For more information on the I Am Unbeatable photo project, visit iamunbeatable.com