Following the deaths of her grandchildren’s parents, Debbie Douglas turned to NC IOLTA grantee Inner Banks Legal Services for help with her complex guardianship petition — providing the family with legal certainty in a time of grief and transition.
“I Was All They Knew”: A Grandmother’s Determination to Ensure Stability for the Children in Her Care
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When Debbie Douglas’s daughter, Samantha, was diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer in 2023, both women knew it was important that they make arrangements for her two young children while she received treatment in a nearby city.
The children’s father had passed away in 2020, so Debbie was the best choice to ensure their care and well-being during the weeks their mom would be away. Samantha had a temporary custody agreement notarized, and Debbie stepped in to provide daily care for Brayden, then 9, and Lexi, 6.
But Samantha’s treatment failed to slow the progression of the disease, and she passed away on Sept. 24, 2024.
“That left the kids with no [parent],” Debbie recalled. “I was taking care of them. I wanted to make sure they weren’t taken away from me, because I was all they knew.”
Because the notarized custody agreement was temporary — and Samantha had not had the opportunity to name Debbie as the children’s permanent guardian — the grieving family found themselves in a legally worrisome situation.
“At that time, I was a wreck — the only thing that mattered to me was my grandkids. They’d already lost one parent, and now the other. Their stability was the most important thing.”
The county Department of Social Services, which normally appoints a guardian for minor children whose parents are deceased, declined to take action in this family’s case, leaving it to Debbie to hire a private attorney to formalize her role as the children’s guardian. The expense of such action could have added significantly to the challenges Debbie was already facing.
“At that time, I was a wreck — the only thing that mattered to me was my grandkids,” Debbie said. “They’d already lost one parent, and now the other. Their stability was the most important thing.”
But Debbie, 51, knew she didn’t have to navigate this path on her own. As an employee of Hyde County Hotline, a crisis intervention and domestic/sexual violence advocacy organization, she was familiar with a local provider of sliding-scale civil legal aid: Inner Banks Legal Services.
Debbie and her grandchildren, Brayden and Lexi, celebrate Brayden’s awards at the end of the 2024-25 school year. “I am so proud of what they were able to accomplish this year even with the loss of their mom,” Debbie said.
A 2025 NC IOLTA grant recipient, Inner Banks provides family law services to eligible clients free of charge through their Family Law Fellowship.
“We had referred clients to Inner Banks in the past,” Debbie noted. “I can’t say enough good things about them. They stepped right in. They knew exactly what I wanted to do.”
Debbie’s legal team, led by Family Law Fellow Amelia Bryn Cooper, quickly recognized the complexity of the situation.
“Her case was unusual because, unlike most situations involving children, there were no living biological parents to pursue custody against. Debbie was the only person available to care for the children,” Amelia Bryn explained. “This meant we instead had to pursue guardianship, a process more commonly used by Social Services than in private cases.
“It really became a team effort to find a legal solution that ensured the children’s permanency, stability and safety.”
The process to establish Debbie as the children’s legal guardian took about four months. Debbie, focused on helping Brayden and Lexi return to a sense of normalcy after their mom’s death, said the team “kept me updated and informed throughout the process. … It was such a big thing for me at the time, getting that done.”
Inner Banks Legal Services offers sliding-scale services in six Eastern North Carolina counties — including the one where Debbie Douglas and her grandchildren live — with the practice’s two Family Law Fellows providing quality free legal support to low-income clients in need.
That the legal assistance was provided free of charge was critical. “I don’t know if I could have afforded it otherwise,” she said.
For Sarah Beth Withers, Inner Banks Legal’s founder and executive director, the case illustrates why the firm’s nonprofit model is so important to the Eastern North Carolina communities it serves, where finances are tight for many families and private attorneys can be in short supply.
“Having free representation through this fellowship program ensured that the children’s rights were protected and Debbie could achieve the permanency and security her family deserved without the stress of paying for legal fees,” she said.
“Having free representation through this fellowship program ensured that the children’s rights were protected and Debbie could achieve the permanency and security her family deserved without the stress of paying for legal fees.”
Sarah Beth added that representing Debbie in her case also meant “a great deal” to her for another reason.
“We work closely with community partners like Hyde County Hotline to serve survivors, but it is something different when one of those trusted advocates places their personal confidence in us. It underscored the value of our collaboration and the mutual respect we’ve built over time,” she said. “Most importantly, it was a reminder that even those who dedicate their lives to supporting others sometimes need support themselves, and it was an honor to be able to provide that for Debbie.”
Today, just over a year after her daughter’s passing, Debbie said she’s grateful for how well the children have adjusted to their new situation.
Sharing a photo of the three of them at the end of the last school year, she noted that it shows Brayden wearing “all of his awards” from his fifth-grade graduation ceremony. “He is an honor roll student, and Lexi also got many awards. I am so proud of what they were able to accomplish this year even with the loss of their mom.”
Learn more about this vital legal aid organization — and the impact that free civil legal advice and representation can make in these traditionally underserved counties in Eastern North Carolina — in our story, Meet Inner Banks Legal Services’ Family Law Fellows.
Legislation passed by the North Carolina General Assembly on July 9, 2025, bars NC IOLTA from grantmaking from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026. Consistent with the legislation, our 2026 funding cycle has not been opened.
NC State Bar Executive Director Peter Bolac provided an update to members of the Bar on Nov. 6, 2025. Details are available here. The NC State Bar and NC IOLTA continue to seek a resolution to preserve funding for civil legal aid, which plays a critical role in building a legal system that works for everyone, breaking down barriers and creating strong communities across North Carolina.