SHARON: I felt a warm
sensation of blood just gushing down my face, and
instantly, everything had just disappeared. Everything just went
totally pitch black. PATRICK: And you start to ask
yourself, what did I do wrong? You know, I just
got up to go diving. And now I'm in a situation that
is going to probably cost me my life. RENEE: I knew that there's
no way I could overpower the both of them. I knew that then, you know, I
was pretty much going to die. SHARON: From the moment I was
pushed down into that mattress, it was how am I going
to get back to my kids? I do not want my children
to grow up without me. There was a car I noticed behind
me with one headlight that was burned out, and the other
one was aimed in my rearview mirror. And it was rather annoying. So I just decided I was
going to ease back on the gas pedal a little bit,
let that car just pass. And I kept my focus on the road
straight ahead in front of me. And as that car
pulled out next to me and pulled right next to me,
I noticed a flash of light, and it appeared as if somebody
had thrown a firecracker from that car because I
saw the flash of light, and then I heard a popping
sound come from that car. And at the very same time, I
felt a pressure that pushed me over in the seat. And I felt a warm
sensation of blood just gushing down my face. And instantly, everything
had just disappeared. Everything just went
totally pitch black. I couldn't see anything at all. So I was faced with
my very first dilemma because I was traveling
between 45, 50 miles an hour, and I knew I had to stop
the car some way somehow. So I did manage to put my foot-- remove it from the gas, put it
on the brake, turn the wheel, the steering wheel to the right
and brought the car safely to a stop at the
side of the road. The first thing I did
was I laid on the horn to draw attention to myself, and
that's the only thing I could think of. I needed help. I needed it now, and
if I laid on the horn, maybe somebody would
hear it and stop. And it actually worked because
in a matter of only a few moments, a man's voice
appeared at the window pushing me off of
the horn and just saying those words
I wanted to hear. It's like, oh my
God, who did this? I'll help you, and I'll
take you to the hospital. I couldn't see who
this man was, so I had no idea what he looked like. But the sense of
urgency in his voice and knowing what I
had just experienced, I was just glad he was there. So he opened up my car door,
helped me over to his vehicle. In fact, he threw
me over his shoulder and carried me very
carefully over to his car. He told me that he was
a medic in the service, and he knew that head
wounds would bleed a lot, so he just reminded
me to remain calm and that he would get
me to the hospital. When we got to the building,
he opened up the door. And that is when
my sense of safety completely left because as he
opened up the door, at the very same time that he
was assisting me in, he shoved me from behind
down into a mattress that was low on the floor. So I responded very quickly. I yelled. I said, this is not a hospital. I didn't get any response. PATRICK: Coming out the
inlet, it was rough. So-- but we thought maybe it
was going to lay down that day, and it wasn't something
that would keep us at home because you can't-- if you stay at home all
the days that are rough, then you'll never go out. So it was probably
two to four foot seas. We were diving approximately
10 miles east of shore. You have one person in the
water doing the spear fishing and the other person
following around on the boat. As soon as I went in
the water, the wind increased about
five miles an hour. Within a short time afterwards,
the seas built to six feet. Upon surfacing after
approximately 10 minutes, the current had taken me to
the northeast from my location. I knew that the
situation was bad, and that was not a good feeling. I saw the first Coast
Guard helicopter on scene about an hour and a
half after I surfaced. We've never called the Coast
Guard on each other ever, and like I said, we've been
diving for a long time. So right then, I knew
that something was up. I saw them show
up, and then they started doing their search. They set up their grid. And I knew it was going to be
hours before they got to where I was. We talked every day. I was her kids' godmother. She's kind of like
an extended family. Not a day went by
we didn't talk, you know, do
something, whatever. But we never even had an
argument ever in life. Eva's mother had passed away
and left her this house. She could have easily
stayed in the house. She decided she wanted to
start over in a new town and didn't have
the money to do so. So she had an idea that
she would come to Columbus, live in a shelter for
women and children, and after a couple of weeks
that they would give her an apartment and pay the
utilities free, you know? She could stay there
for free for six months to get on her feet. So she chose to do that. Eva would come and stay with
me for a few days at a time. She'd say, oh, do you mind if I
come stay for a couple of days? And of course, it was fine. The whole time she'd be
there, she would sleep. She'd get up and eat dinner
and go back to sleep. And my boyfriend
was like, you know, that's not-- that
doesn't seem right to me. Something's wrong, you know? Is she on drugs? She has to be on drugs. I got back from the trail,
and as I'm pulling up, my boyfriend's in the driveway. And he's talking to Eva
and her brother, Terry. It's not uncommon
for Eva to come by. Terry-- it just didn't
sit well with me. My stomach knotted up. I didn't feel right. I even hesitated. I just wanted to drive on by. Something was like
this is not right. I whispered to my boyfriend. I said, why are they here? And he said, Renee,
they're your friends. You know, I don't know. As I'm sitting on the
front stoop with them, it was like an eerie feeling. They really were kind of just
quiet in the weird sense a way. You know, you come over
to my house to visit me, but you're not saying anything. You're just sitting there. I thought to myself, why
aren't you calling for a ride? And how did you get here? If you had a ride here, why
don't they just take you where you need to go? It just all did not sit right. And I'm just like, OK,
if I give her the phone, someone's going to pick
her up, and they're gone. And I don't have
to deal with this. You would never think-- you
know, it's such a small noise. But when I heard
that, I just stopped because it was the loudest
noise I had ever heard. And I turned around,
and Terry had a gun pointed at my forehead. SHARON: All I could
think of at the time was fighting second
by second, moment by moment just to stay alive. Who was this person? What was going to happen next? I knew I was flat on
my back on a mattress, on something soft that
was low on the floor. And then I felt a pillow
come down over my face. I had no idea what was going on. All I know is that I wanted
to continue to breathe. So again, moment by
moment, second by second, I wanted to breathe. What did I need to do
to continue to breathe? I remembered I had shoes
on, and I had heels. And I thought if I could only
get one of those heels off of my foot. So very carefully, I lowered my
hand to the little buckle that was on the strap, undid that,
grabbed the shoe by the front of the shoe, turned it around
with the heel coming up first. And I started swinging as
hard as I possibly could. And apparently it was effective
because he released one side of the pillow just enough
where I was able to put my hand underneath a pillow. I shoved it off,
and I yelled at him. I said, hey, wait a minute,
and he said what's wrong? So I told him, I said
you're suffocating me. I can't breathe. And he says, oh, I'm sorry, and
he took the pillow off my face. Now I didn't know how
effective that was going to be, but I sure thought
if I would have known it was going to work, I
would have done it much sooner. After the incident
with the pillow, he would walk around
the room, and then he wouldn't say anything. And I could hear the
television droning on quietly in the background, and then
he would walk over to me, and I reached out--
and he reached down, and he was taking
off my clothing. And I was thinking, what
is going to come next? It can't be. And it was. I was raped. PATRICK: The whole time
that I was on the surface, I wasn't just drifting. I wasn't just on an
inner tube and like in the Bahamas enjoying myself. It was a struggle
the entire time to keep my head above water
even with a flotation device because the wind's blowing
the tops of the waves off and throwing
them in your face. You can't use your
hands to paddle or do anything to keep
your position because both your hands are-- you got the
death grip on your equipment. You're going to make the biggest
commotion you can so that they can see you. And I was doing that by putting
my bag on the end of my pole spear and with the
flashlight hanging on-- there was a yellow flashlight. I was waving that
back and forth. As a helicopter-- another
helicopter was approaching, I went to go grab the bag
to put it on the pole spear, and I realized that I
had dropped the bag. I knew that if I was going
to make it to night fall, that was my only chance. And now I-- just the
frustration just was-- you know, really took hold. And that's when I just
threw a couple other pieces of equipment away. I was like why am I even
holding onto this stuff. As the sun was setting, and
the desperation was building, I realized that this last
helicopter was coming by. If they didn't see
me during the day, they're never going
to see me at night. So I was trying
to think of a way to get their attention right
now as the suns-- as it's dark. The power head is about probably
three or four inches long as big around as your thumb. It kicks back just like a gun
would if you were holding it. And so you have to
figure out a way to get it-- allow it to
kick out of your hand as opposed to-- you can't
hold it because it's basically a controlled explosion
in your hand. You know, it's going
through your mind that something bad might happen,
and something bad did happen. When it kicked back, instead
of kicking back out of my hand like I anticipated, it went
right between my fingers and pretty much blew my
knuckle on my index finger on my right hand just
got shattered it. And then it lodged
in between there. Now I know I'm going to
be out there all night. It's rough, and it's
getting rougher. The helicopters didn't
find me during the day. I know I'm going to be
out there all night. I blew my hand apart. I'm not going to
use it if I need it. It's bleeding. I don't know if sharks
going to show up in the middle of the night. The water's cold. It's 80 degrees. Now the wind's blowing. It's nighttime. Now you're getting cold. And you start to ask yourself
know what did I do wrong, you know? I didn't-- you know, I
just got up to go diving, and now I'm in a situation that
is going to probably cost me my life. And I turned
around and Terry had a gun pointed at my
forehead, and I just stopped, and I'm like-- I looked at him. And I'm like, what
are you doing? I thought, they're
playing, you know? Because she's my best friend. I look over at her. She never once made eye contact
with me through the whole time. She would look away. She looked down
because I was kind of like wanting to look for--
look at her to be like help, you know? What is wrong with him? But what was wrong with him
was they hatched this plan. They're both against me. She's not going to help. Terry said that
they needed money. And I said, well, I
don't have any money. Eva spoke up and said,
well, Kelly's friends do, and he will pay to get you back. When they asked
for money, I knew she had-- she's in a situation
she needed to get a place to live. I'm thinking how
could she do this? For rent money, really? I didn't have money to
give them, so it didn't-- the whole situation was
not well thought out. It didn't make sense. Then immediately I thought,
she knows of my guns. We have a 9 millimeter we
kept underneath our mattress for protection. She knew we kept a gun there. When she went down the
stairs, it just dawned on me. She's going to get my gun,
my only source of protection that I have. For whatever reason,
he didn't follow. But I went down the stairs,
and when I turned the corner to go into our family room,
she's coming out of my room carrying my gun. And the safety on the
gun is very, very tricky. And not everyone knows
that but me and Kelly. So as soon as she
comes out, I lunge, and we're like
struggling over this gun. And I'm stronger than she is. And I knew I'm going
to take this gun. And if I have to shoot
him to get out, I will. We're kind of like
pulling on it, trying to get it out
of each other's grasp. I'm gaining control
over the gun. I could feel her grasp
starting to slip. And then as she's hollering
for her brother, you know, I'm thinking I've got to
get this from her now. The next thing I knew he
had his arm around my neck kind of like this. And he's trying to
pull me off of her. And he was having trouble
getting me off of her, and so he bit my back. And it hurt so bad I had to
let go of the gun with one arm to try to go like that
to get him off of me. And when I did that, she
gained control of the gun, and then they both
had-- pointed the guns-- both guns were against my head. I knew that there's no
way I could overpower the both of them. I knew that then, you know, I
was pretty much going to die. SHARON: I was thinking,
what is going to come next? And then I felt something
cold go onto my chest and on my neck. I remain silent, and
since I remain silent, he remains silent. The body is a miraculous thing,
and I was spared from any pain. I felt pressures. I felt sensations. And I remember feeling
terribly, terribly cold, whether it was the blood
or whether it was-- I had-- he had taken
all my clothing. But I was shivering, I mean,
just shivering uncontrollably. You don't instantly
adapt to blindness in a matter of an hour or two. You don't-- it's
terrifying, first of all. All I had left was to
focus on the sounds. The television, I could tell
it was on an all night station. And so there were reruns
of old movies that were on, and I just listened
to where he was going. He went into the other room. He left me, and
I could feel him, you know, pacing and
watching and just staring. I dozed off, and
apparently he did, too, because I was awakened to
him breathing very heavily at the foot of the bed. It's like he was sitting on
the floor with his head resting on the mattress. And as I'm lying there, I'm
listening to the street noises, and they were very, very
few, minimal at best. So I thought, it's still
either very late in the evening or very early in the morning. And I thought what are
my chances if I were to try to make a break for-- and I'm thinking where? The door. Where's the door? I had no idea where the
door was-- door was. PATRICK: After nightfall,
I started to think I need to save myself now. So I just took myself right
out of the search grid. And so they're looking
for me in a certain spot, and I know now it's-- I'm out of that. But I had to do something. I wasn't going to
sit there and wait. You know, who knows? You got to help yourself. So that's what I did. I could see two condos
on Hutchinson Island, and they looked like very
small, and I knew they weren't. I knew they were large. And I swam towards them. You're not going
as fast as you can. You're just trying to get into
like a fast walk, like you would do on land. And you're trying to
get in a type of swim, and you just want to keep going
without taking any breaks. I was freezing. I was really cold and
probably ultimately, if you were to put your finger
on one thing that was just absolutely the worst,
that would be it. The cold would just
drive you crazy. And now you're going
through your mind, am I going to have hypothermia? Is that going to kill me? Am I going to go
into kidney failure? Is that going to kill me? Am I going to hit by a boat? Is a shark going to eat me? What's going to happen
that's going to-- worse now. I mean, nothing went my way. So that's what you're thinking. What am I going to do? When they pointed
both guns at my head, I just fell to my knees. And I was thinking-- I was praying, God, they're
going to kill me, you know? And I was crying because
I thought one of the kids is going to come home from
school and find me there, and I was picturing
that in my mind. And I just was sobbing. And I could feel the
guns against my head, and I had my head down. I was-- I knew I
was about to die. After a few seconds,
nothing happened. And I kind of opened my
eyes, and I'm looking around. And I'm like, how am I
going to get out of here? I'm in my basement with
two guns at my head. I looked up, and I saw my cell
phone laying on the pool table. And I thought, I've
got to call 9-1-1. So I acted like I
was getting sick. I kind of stood up and
said, oh my God, you guys. I feel like I'm
going to be sick. And I got up, and I walked
out to go to the restroom. And as I did so, I
grabbed my cell phone, hit 9-1-1, and hid
it down by my leg. So as I get in the
restroom, I'm sitting on the side of the
bathtub with my cell phone under my leg where
they can't see it, and I'm leaning over the
toilet, acting like I'm gagging. They come in and
are standing over me with the guns on my head again. And I kept saying, Terry and
Eva, why are you doing this? Get the guns out of my face. I wanted someone to know
if they killed me that-- who it was, you know,
and I kept saying why are you trying to kill
me, so 9-1-1 would say, what? You know, so I thought
help was on the way. She took it from me, and she
immediately looked at the phone to see my past call history,
and she said she called 9-1-1. They're on their way. We've got to leave. So at that point, they held
me-- or they pointed their guns at me and led me at
gunpoint up the stairs. Throughout that whole time, I
kept thinking, what happened? You know, what happened
to our years of friendship that she felt like I
didn't matter anymore? Maybe I never did matter to
her, is what I started to think. How could they
betray me like that? You know, they're supposed to
protect me, not try to hurt me. And I thought what
are my chances if I were to try to make a break for-- and I'm thinking where? The door. Where's the door? I had no idea
where the door was. I opted to wait till morning. I was awakened to the sound of
a plastic trash bag being shaken out and unfolded over me. And at the same time, I
noticed that the world had become alive. The street noises became busy. And then he came over,
and he reached down, and he picked up my wrist,
assuming that I possibly wouldn't have a pulse. And he held it
for a few moments. And then he released it, and
I let my hand fall right back to the bed. I didn't move. And then I heard his footsteps
walking around the room, and they went further
and further away. And then I heard a door open,
and I could hear the street noises get a little bit louder
as I'm analyzing those sounds. And then I heard
him close that door. And then I heard him
check the handle. He jiggled that handle to make
sure that the door was locked. And then I heard a car start. When I heard it leave and blend
in with the rest of the traffic noises, I thought this
is my opportunity. And boy, I better take
advantage of it immediately. I dragged my body off of that
bed and found the closest wall and started trailing that wall. And then very quickly,
I found the door. Turned the doorknob. The door opened, and I could
hear the street noises get very loud. That's why I knew it was
the door to the outside. No one would stop. So the next strategy was
find something, throw it out into the street,
get someone to stop. If they didn't see me, make
a spectacle of yourself. Even though I had no clothes
on, I was usually very-- very bashful and very shy. But in this case, my
life is depending on it. So as I'm screaming I found a
very large catch net, a fishnet that was there. And I grabbed it, and
I started waving it. But then I was going to throw
it into traffic to stop traffic, too. I wanted help. But as I was getting
ready to throw it, all of a sudden a man's
voice came up behind me, and he says, oh my
God, who did this? I'll help you, and I'll
take you to the hospital. PATRICK: As those
waves are breaking, the best way I
can describe it is if you were to sit here and let
me take a five gallon bucket of water every three seconds
and slam it into your face. After a while, you-- it's catching you off guard. You can't see the waves coming. They're filling your mouth up
with water, filling your nose up with water, busting into your
eyes, you can't open your eyes, forcing that horribly cold
water down into your wetsuit, changing that, you're shivering
like there's no tomorrow. And it's just-- before you can
even catch your thought, boom. I just constantly felt
like I was going to drown. Your mind wanders, and it
just does its own thing. You can't shut it off. There's no knob to it. You're thinking
about your family. What happens if
I never am found? You know, who's going to-- my wife's not going to be
able to pay the electric bill. She's not going be able
to balance the checkbook. We're going to lose the house. Who's going to walk my
daughter down the aisle? You know, and all these things
are going through your mind, and you're like are they going
to grow up out without a dad? My wife had lost
her father early. So I knew it was tough. And I don't want to do that. I wanted to try and
be there for them. Terry said to Eva, you know,
where are we going to go? And she said we're going to
take her to the apartment. And I-- I didn't know if
she meant her apartment. They had another
one somewhere else. I knew that if they put me in
that van at all, that I'm dead. He's standing over me,
pointing the gun at me, and I was like, Terry,
why are you doing this? You know, I said I helped take
care of your mom till she died. I got you out of jail. You know, I've always
taken care of everyone. You know, we're family. And he said, Renee,
that's my sister. I had to. So my only choice was to run. If they're going
to kill me, they're going to chase me
down to get me. I'm not going to go easy. She walks in the
house, and I'm still like, you guys where
are you taking me? Why are you doing this to me? You know? I just wanted to know why. Why? How? And she would not look at
me and wouldn't answer. She put her-- the
gun she had, she put in her waist of her pants. And I noticed that
her pants were tight. So I'm thinking the
safety is tricky. Her pants are tight. It's going to be a
couple of seconds for her to get this gun out. So when we walk out of the
house, she's first, I'm second, Terry's behind me. Well, when we get to the stoop. As she stepped down, I
shoved him with all my might because he has a bad hip. He's not going to be able
to just run after me. I ran as fast as I could,
and I'm screaming, help me, somebody help me. They're trying to kill me. And as I'm running,
in my mind, I'm thinking, whose voice is that? I knew I was screaming. But this-- it was a voice from
like one of those scary movies you watch. It was so desperate,
and it was not my voice. I'm pounding on the
door, and I'm crying, and I'm screaming,
please help me. She is so close. She's right on the
other side of the door, and she's like,
honey, wait a minute. I got to get the deadbolt key. And I'm thinking, oh my
gosh, are you serious. I hear tires squealing,
and I look over, and here they come in my van. SHARON: All of a sudden, a
man's voice came up behind me, and he says, oh my
God, who did this? I'll help you, and I'll
take you to the hospital. Very quickly, I turned towards
the man, towards the voice. I said what is your name. Who are you? Where are you going? Where you coming from. And he said, my name is Charlie. I'm on my way to work. I'm an air
conditioning repairman. And as he's talking, I'm
listening to his voice, and I'm thinking that's
not the same man. So I asked him, I said, do you
know where the hospital is? He said, yes. I said, let's go. He very carefully helped
me over to his car. He placed me in
the passenger seat. He quickly got in. All of a sudden, his
car comes to a stop, and I heard the sound the
voices of two nurses who are opening up the passenger
side car door, and just went, oh my gosh. They helped me out of the
car, put me on the gurney, covered me with the sheets, and
wheeled me into the emergency room. PATRICK: The moon came up. And so it lit it
up a little bit. And then about five miles an
hour came off of the wind. You're looking
for little things, and when everything's been
going wrong, all you're doing is looking for a little thing. I mean, that was huge, huge
because now the white caps weren't breaking, and I
wasn't getting water stuffed in my mouth. I mean, it was-- that day
was the most beautiful day. It was a complete 180
from the day before. It was not a cloud in the sky. It was just as clear and blue a
day as you could ever imagine. Because you don't know what
you're doing or how far you've gone. And then when that sun comes
up, and those condos that were a speck on the horizon now
look like they're a half a mile away, you know that you made
some-- way more progress than you had ever
anticipated, at least I did. And I'm screaming
please hurry, hurry. They're going to kill me. And I didn't know where they
were at until I heard the tires squealing, and I looked back. And they were about three
houses from me at that point. I didn't have time to wait
for her to find the key. And I jumped off the
stoop and ran around the side of the house. So I jumped over the chain
link fence, and in doing so, my t-shirt caught it, and
it pulled me down on it. And it was one of
the jagged ones, and it kind of like
cut my stomach. I had to stay there and like
rip my shirt off of the fence. I was stuck. After I did that, I
ran through the yard and jumped another
fence, and there was a garage with some
weeds and overgrown flowers. And I just crouched
down in there. And I heard car doors,
and I'm thinking please don't let them find me. And I heard their
voices and they had to have been about
five feet from me. I didn't want to turn
and look for fear they might see the weeds move. And I'm under the
weeds in the mud, and I'm praying, oh my God,
please, please help me. Don't let them find me. After a few seconds
went by, I heard the car doors and the
tires squeal again. And I was-- I was afraid to come out. So I waited for a
few more seconds. I didn't hear anything. And then I came out,
and I'm shaking. I'm muddy. I'm bleeding. I'm crying. And the guy's-- the guy who
lived at the house whose garage I'm hiding behind come
outside, and he had-- he happened to have his
cordless phone in his hand, and he looked at me and
said, are you on drugs? I said no, they
tried to kill me. Can I use your phone? And he had this
look of disbelief, and he handed me
the phone so slowly. And I called 9-1-1. The police pulled up. Seemed like seconds
after I walked out. And I just collapsed
in the yard, and I looked up at the sky
and was like, oh my gosh, I'm still alive. Eva was like my sister. So if she would have came
to me and said, look, you know, I messed up, and
I don't have rent money. And I have to move
out, they would have been more than welcome at
my house until she got a place. I would have helped
her get a place. Having your best friend come
to your house and do that is like-- it's overwhelming. You know, at the
same time, you know, I'm struggling for my life. I don't hold anything
against them. I feel very sorry for
them because true friends and good family are
really hard to find. And I was one of
the truest people that they will ever meet. And they threw me away
like I was nothing. She could have destroyed my
family over nothing, you know? Just sad. I survived because
God has a plan for me. I am in school for
criminal justice now. And my-- my children and
stepchildren are almost grown. I have two grandchildren,
which I absolutely love. I'm supposed to be here, and I-- I love my family, and I believe
that I survived because I'm a-- I'm a fighter. PATRICK: I kicked it up
a notch at that time. I happen to see a little
Cessna plane, a small aircraft just cruising down
the condos there. And I was like, God, I wonder
if that's my brother-in-law, you know? Because I knew he was a pilot. And it went by, and then I--
then I just continued to swim. I saw this happen six times
yesterday, seven times yesterday, and it
just kept on going. So I'm thinking that's
going to happen again. And as it approached,
it approached at the perfect direction,
and he was looking. I was waving. And he went by, and I just-- I didn't even really look. I was like yeah,
he missed me again. And then I looked over, and
I saw him bank the turn. And I knew-- I knew
he saw me then. He said we're going to be
at St. Mary's in 30 minutes, and off he went. And then he said, you
see that little Cessna? And he said that's
your brother-in-law. So I knew he was out
there looking for me. When they got me
out of that basket to walk to that stretcher, I
told them that I could make it. But I didn't realize
how tired I was. Like I stood up, and I
just-- it was like 20 feet, and the girl realized I
wasn't going to make it. She brought it over
and got me, you know? Because I was going to fall. And then she dialed my wife's
number and hand me the phone. And I just didn't-- I just said. Well, she knows what I said. I just said I'm sorry. SHARON: The nurse told me I
was covered from head to toe with blood. She was cleaning
blood out of my toes. And I had to point to them,
where the injuries were. I thought something felt like it
hit me here and then over here. Well, in fact what
had happened was was when that vehicle
was on the road, the person in that vehicle fired
three shots from a handgun. And one of the bullets
passed directly through both of my eyes, entered
in the corner in the crease of my left eye,
passed right through and came out the corner,
the crease of my right eye, taking out both eyes completely. And then I had to
point out a few more. I said I felt a pressure
to my neck, to my chest. And they found-- they said
those were stab wounds. And the nurse said it also
looked like I was sliced, not direct punctures, but
sliced from head to toe. I had already come
to terms with it because when that
bullet went through, it just felt very final. So when the doctor came
to me in the hospital and said you're going
to be blind for the rest of your life, I said,
Doctor, I realize that. And he-- I guess he just left me
shaking his head because people I guess just don't
adjust that quickly. But I knew-- I had a feeling
it was going to be final, and that was it. I survived because he
had already taken enough, and I wasn't going to let
him take one second more. When you're blind in the way
that I was through a gunshot and then somebody coming
and offering help and then realizing that the
person that you thought was going to be a good
Samaritan was not, it's absolutely terrifying. It's frightening. It's terrifying. But in order to get to find
that survival in yourself, you have to get over it. You have to get
beyond it, and you have to find what is
going to help you to live.
