Ashley met Kenny when she was going through a difficult time. Her mother had just passed away, and the loss hit her hard. She got divorced around that time, too.

"I was a mess," she says.

She was working at a local restaurant as a waitress. Her neighbor got a job as a bartender at the local bowling alley. She asked Ashley to come over so she wouldn't be nervous. Ashley started to talk to Kenny, whom she recognized because he also came into her restaurant. This was in August.

"He was too good to be true," she says, "and his true colors started to show" by December.

He would come into the restaurant and watch Ashley. If he thought she talked to another man for too long (while she was taking his order), he would leave and then call her, scream at her and call her filthy names.

She tried to break up with him, but that only made him angrier, and the harassment got worse.

She says: "He'd call me at home or at work every two minutes. My salary was all the money I had coming in and I had three children to support. I would always end up going back with him so my life wouldn't be ruined."

Kenny wasn't content just harassing Ashley. He started attacking her friends and family — anyone who would dare say anything bad about him or to him. Their tires were slashed, their windows were broken. He'd leave threats on their voicemail.

She says: "The calls would go on all night. I wouldn't answer, so he'd leave screaming messages telling me he was going to rape my daughters, he was going to go to the cemetery and dig up my dead mother and put her on my porch, he was going to get me fired, my kids were stupid and whores and sluts, I was a fat pig and he was just using me.' The calls usually ended up with 'I love you, can't you see that?'

"He called my father and told him that I said he had molested me. He called my friends and told them lies. Anything I had told him in confidence when things had been good with us he turned around, hoping my family and friends would have nothing to do with me.

"He came after my kids and me with a knife and a tire iron while we were sitting outside one night. My daughter's 16-year-old boyfriend grabbed a golf club out of a golf bag sitting by the back door and clocked him with it right in the face. He calmly walked away and dropped his weapons.

"Next thing I knew there was an ambulance and the police out in front. We told them what happened, they took the report, and he went to the hospital. A few minutes later, a nurse from the hospital called saying he asked her to call me. He was in really bad shape and wanted me to come to the hospital. I told her, "Lady, we're the ones who did that to him!' She apologized profusely."

Next, we'll see what happened when Kenny got out of the hospital.

Have you been stalked? Have you ever stalked anyone? Send your tale, along with your questions and problems to [email protected]. And check out my e-books, "Dear Cheryl: Advice from Tales from the Front" and "I'll Call You. Not."