Elizabeth Smart - She was victim of one of the most famous abductions in USA, when in 2002 at the age of 14, Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped for nine months and then returned to her parents by the police. Yesterday, she gave a talk on the YMCA Empowering Women Luncheon and showed strength and hope for everyone out there.
The kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart happened in 2002. She was taken from her home when she was only 14 years old, and taken for nine months. The case became known to everyone and it was one of the highest publicised kidnappings in USA's History, according to TWC News. She was returned in 2003 and a movie telling her story was released that year, The Elizabeth Smart Story, which is based on the known facts.
What truly happened was told by Elizabeth Smart herself in a book she released, called My Story, in which she recalls the situations as a way to empower people to hope even in the most difficult situations. And not only that.
The book was released in October last year, and this year a new chapter is added, as she shared in an interview with Today. After releasing the book, she was in January this year in a TEDx Talk sharing her story and then yesterday, she also shared it at the YMCA event in Rochester, New York.
I'm afraid we don't have the footage from yesterday, but we do have the TEDx Talk in which she shared her experience and truly moved people. She started off by introducing the subject, saying that many times people don't feel like getting out of bed in the morning and need to find a reason to do so.
Then, she tells that at the age of 14, she was taken from her bed and threatened with a knife, so she followed. She was taken to a place behind the mountains and a couple formed by a man and a woman dressed her in ropes. After that, the man called her "his wife," and as one she would have to do all the duties that a wife did. He raped her and then hell happened for the next nine months.
Some of her actual words were, "I will never forget how I felt, how broken I felt. How I was beyond all help, all hope, that even if someone did find me, what was the point? I was useless, I was disgusting, I wasn't worth saving at that point."
Her story is gripping and heartbreaking and wrenching, but Elizabeth Smart shared it, more than once, written and verbally, because it's a way to help others. Because by knowing the story of another person, you can be hopeful that things happen in the world, horrible and tragic things, but you can move on and be better.
Elizabeth Smart is married now and "Life couldn't be better" for her at the moment, as Desert News noted.
