The Self-Help Center has witnessed hundreds of stories of abuse, flight, and struggle for some sense of stability in the aftermath of domestic violence.

But rarely has it seen a rapid recovery like Paula McBride, who left Washington state a year ago with a couple of suitcases, some blankets and pillows, a computer and printer, toys for her daughter and nowhere to go.

"In less than 45 days, she acquired a house, and two full-time jobs," said Kristin Arthur, an AmeriCorps volunteer who was McBride's advocate at the Self-Help Center.

She permanently cut her ties with the abusive partner she left, and has stayed in contact with the center, Arthur added.

Sunday evening, McBride spoke at the 21st annual vigil for domestic violence victims at Morad Park.

In an interview Saturday, McBride said she moved to northwestern Washington after being laid off in July 2008 at the auto parts manufacturer where she worked in northeastern Indiana.

She had endured domestic violence in Indiana, and became involved in another bad relationship in Washington that rapidly escalated when her partner became jealous when she was talking on the phone.

McBride and her daughter, MaryJoe, packed what they could and drove east with some friends heading to the Midwest when they stopped at Spearfish, S.D., she said.

Her three other children were grown and she had no reason to return to Indiana, so she contacted the domestic violence shelter there, and they told her Casper would be a good place for a single mother.

After a couple of bus rides and transfers, she arrived in Casper from Gillette one evening and was stunned by the city lights and the mountains, she said.

Arthur said the Self-Help Center put McBride in its safe house for 30 days, and she then moved to its transitional housing program called Turning Point for two weeks. Last month, the agency moved the transitional housing program from the Life Steps Campus on 12th Street to its new location at the Ivy House Inn on South Ash Street.

McBride had no intention of living her life as a needy victim, she said.

Besides finding a place for herself and MaryJoe, she bought a vehicle. Since then, she's traded up in vehicles and now owns a Wyoming-respectable white pickup truck, and shares a house with some other renters, she said.

Since she was a girl, she fell in love with the romantic notions of the West -- Cheyenne Frontier Days, "Eight Seconds," cowboys and the rest.

Casper wasn't her goal, but it fit with the romance, she said. "It had nothing to do with Casper, it had to do with the West."

This central Wyoming city also fit with her new life, she said. "I feel safe here."

McBride is still working through the issues in her life that have drawn her to abusive men, she said.

"When you've been through bad [relationships] you build walls up," she said. "You become very cautious with who you trust."

The emotional scars are worse than the beatings, she added. "The mental abuse is really hard, the bruises go away."

McBride is proud of her independence, and her ability to take care of herself and her daughter without leaning on social service agencies, she said.

Even so, agencies such as the Self-Help Center have an important role and she helps when she can because other women endure what she did, she said.

Women victims will tell McBride they still love their partner and his abuse really doesn't reflect his character, she said.

But McBride asks them what they think will happen the next time an argument gets out of control, she said.

"I tell them there is help," They need to know there is help, and people do understand."

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at tom.morton@trib.com. Read his blog at tribtown.trib.com/TomMorton/blog