Still hope following deep family tragedy

With her cousin comatose, woman takes custody of two children



HELPING HAND—Amber Schwartz and her cousin’s daughters, 6-year-old Kortnie (center) and 3-year-old Ashley visit with Cynthia Berliner, founder of Pennies From Heaven, a nonprofit store in Calabasas. Berliner is raising funds and gathering donations for Schwartz and her five children so they can have a larger home and a reliable vehicle. Schwartz got custody of the two girls after domestic abuse left their mom in a coma.

HELPING HAND—Amber Schwartz and her cousin’s daughters, 6-year-old Kortnie (center) and 3-year-old Ashley visit with Cynthia Berliner, founder of Pennies From Heaven, a nonprofit store in Calabasas. Berliner is raising funds and gathering donations for Schwartz and her five children so they can have a larger home and a reliable vehicle. Schwartz got custody of the two girls after domestic abuse left their mom in a coma.

When Cynthia Berliner opened the nonprofit Pennies From Heaven thrift shop in Calabasas last year, she did so with a view to using the money that came in to help children with disabilities and families in crisis.

So when she learned about Amber Schwartz, a single mother of three who was recently granted custody of her cousin’s two daughters, Berliner was more than ready to lend a hand.

She collected household goods such as beds and clothing, and created a GoFundMe page to help Schwartz with living expenses as well as to help pay for the single mother’s possible adoption of the two girls.

Their mother, Deana Broughton, has been in a coma since April when her husband shot her in the face at their home in Sylmar and then killed himself. Broughton’s prospects for recovery are not in her favor.

Schwartz said the oldest girl, Kortnie, 6, saw her mother get shot, then grabbed her little sister, Ashley, 3, and took her to a hiding place under a bed until police arrived. The girls were placed in foster care until Schwartz, who they call Aunt Amber, was given custody of the girls in July.

“My biggest thought was, what about the girls? I just said I want them, I will take them,” Schwartz said. She didn’t want them to stay in foster care because she was worried they would be separated.

The girls are in therapy, dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. Schwartz said they show signs of learning and speech disabilities, adding that they have not grieved or acknowledged the loss of either of their parents.

Schwartz’s goal is to provide a safe and nurturing environment for the girls so they can heal.

“Amber has never wavered,” Berliner said. “She just went to bat for the girls.”

Berliner and her husband, Dr. Harold Maller, are both advocating for the family.

Maller is a pediatrician who was the the physician for Schwartz’s older children when he owned a practice in Van Nuys. He works at a pregnancy counseling center in the San Fernando Valley and is the medical director for Pennies From Heaven, where he helps people like Schwartz to obtain state funding, and medical and counseling benefits.

Schwartz is living in a two-bedroom apartment in the valley with her three children, ages 12 to 23, and the two girls. Berliner hopes to find a larger home where the family can live.

“She needs a larger house with four or five bedrooms and a yard, and a landlord who is willing to work with her and Section 8,” a rental subsidy program. “The family is too large for where they live,” Berliner said.

Schwartz, 43, had lost her job as a property manager in December. She got a job working full-time as a temp, earning $13 an hour, but quit that job in September because “the girls needed more attention and more time,” she said.

She’d been studying for a real estate license before losing her job last year. She plans to resume her studies to obtain the license, which would allow her work schedule to be flexible enough that she can give the children the attention they need.

She also wants to raise awareness about domestic violence. She said the relationship between the girls’ parents had always been turbulent, and the father was suicidal and had other issues that were made worse by substance abuse.

“My cousin didn’t know where to go or what to do,” Schwartz said. “It’s important to see the signs of someone reaching out for help, and I didn’t. I had no idea that it was that bad for my cousin.”

She encourages family members to step in if they suspect drug abuse or domestic violence, and urges women and men affected by domestic violence to seek help.

“I know it’s hard to just up and leave . . . but people need to understand that you have to ask for help and be willing to make that move,” she said.

Pennies From Heaven is at 26500 Agoura Road in Calabasas. To donate to the GoFundMe account, visit www.gofundme.com/pennys4wilsongirls.


FAMILY FOLD—Amber Schwartz with 6-year-old Kortnie and 3-year-old Ashley. “Aunt Amber” received custody of the girls in July when their mother, Schwartz’s cousin, was shot in the face by her husband and fell into a coma.

FAMILY FOLD—Amber Schwartz with 6-year-old Kortnie and 3-year-old Ashley. “Aunt Amber” received custody of the girls in July when their mother, Schwartz’s cousin, was shot in the face by her husband and fell into a coma.

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