TYLER-- October is domestic violence awareness month and today we take a look back to February 28, 2007 a day many East Texans will never forget.

That day a woman almost died after being shot by her husband at the East Texas Medical Center.

In her first interview that woman Luccendia White talks exclusively to KETK about what happened that day and much more.

Ms. White says her husband would tell her, "If you leave me I will kill you. that's was a phrase I heard all the time you know."

And on February 28th 2007 Richard White came to ETMC to finally make good on that threat.

Ms. White remembers that,"(A)s he was firing the gun I got shot in my arm, I got shot in my leg and that's when it dawned on me I'm getting shot."

Once she was shot Ms. White says "I laid there and I talked to God about it and I told God I didn't want this to happen and I just wanted to be happy. I thought about my kids everybody came to my thoughts I don't know.

While everyone saw the aftermath of that frantic day unfold on television there are many things people don't know.

In a split second Ms. White made a decision that may have saved the lives of her co-workers.

She decided to get him away from those she worked with "I was afraid for my other coworkers so I just told him lets go outside."

And it was outside in the courtyard by a peaceful fountain that Ms. White faced death and fought for her life.

She says, "I turned back to him I grabbed his hand in my mind I'm thinking make him shoot down to the ground."

But the White's story didn't begin that day and neither did the violence.

She says, "I met Richard when I was 17 years old." And she says, "even my dating period was violence."

Like many women in her position Ms. White says she grew up without a father figure and didn't know there are boundaries that a relationship should not cross.

She says, "the attention of a man that was strong to me."

Of course many people wonder why she stayed all those years.

She says mental abuse which experts say is common was one reason but two days before the shooting at ETMC she had finally made the decision to leave.

"I had made up in my mind I'm not going to keep catering down to that."

And Ms. White knew that decision could cost her, her life.

She had seen what happened to Maribel Estrada who was killed in 2005 at the Smith County Courthouse as she tried to divorce an abusive husband.

"And I cried and I cried and I said that could have been me." "And it was me"

Even though Ms.White still bears the scars of those five shots, some of her fingers are -numb and she went through 3 months of physical therapy where she learned to walk again, she is not defeated.

Her life she says is just beginning, "that's the amazing thing this is my life now you know I have a right to do what I want to do with it.