Home > Today's Christian
> 2003
> May/June
She Is Not Silent
My daughter was raped, shot three times, and left for dead. But God wanted her to live—and now we know why.
By Michael Kelly
 1 of 7
Father's Day is supposed to be a joyful occasion. But, for me, the day will now always be linked to the memory of an event that changed my family forever.
Last June my daughter, Bridget, a first-grade teacher in Killeen, Texas, sent me a Father's Day card saying how much she looked forward to a summer of visits and travel. The first day of the season, though, brought a painful halt to her hopeful plans.
On June 21 Bridget was raped, shot three times, and left for dead. She survived, some say miraculously. Now it's a year later, yet we all feel years older.
This Father's Day, my wife and I stood in prayerful thanks—grateful for our 25-year-old daughter, wise and strong; for an Army veteran who opened his door in the middle of the night; and to all who helped her get this far.
I give thanks that Bridget never gave in to death and that she never bought in, even for a second, to the age-old scourge of many survivors of rape—the so-called stigma of a sexual assault.
She is not diminished, she is not stigmatized, she is not shamed. Those words describe her attacker, not her.
Bridget is a resilient young woman whose faith in God—and in the compassion of strangers—has only been strengthened by this tragedy.
Recovery, though, is a long road. And a difficult one. She still walks it, as does the rest of our family.
'God doesn't want this'
On the Thursday after Father's Day, Bridget wrote encouraging notes to some of her past year's first-graders. That night she picked up a girlfriend, the librarian at her school, from the airport in Austin. The flight arrived at midnight, and they drove 80 miles home to Killeen.
After dropping off her friend, Bridget returned to her apartment complex. As she got out of her car, she saw a man in the distance but gave it little thought.
She locked two deadbolts behind her and prepared for bed. Minutes later, she heard a frighteningly loud bang at her door. She looked out the peephole and saw a man run up and again kick the door—which hit her in the face, knocking her down.
The man, the one she had seen minutes earlier, stuck a gun in her chest and ordered her to her car. (A neighbor later told police he heard the door being kicked and a woman scream, but looked out and saw no struggle as a couple walked to a car, so he didn't call 911.)
The assailant drove and made Bridget withdraw $200 from a nearby ATM. As he drove farther, she prayed aloud. He told her to shut up.
Trying to make him see her as a person, she told him she was a teacher. Didn't he remember any of his teachers? She talked about her pupils. He was unmoved.
He drove past a new subdivision and into a vacant field, full of weeds and gravel, ordering her out of the car and forcing her to disrobe. She ran, but he caught her and pressed the cold metal gun against her. She told him, "God doesn't want you to do this."
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