Unbroken

Sarah Super is not broken. Sarah Super is a woman who is absolutely, 100% living up to her name. She’s is a rape survivor — a very outspoken rape survivor.

In this episode, Sarah talks about the things that nobody wants to talk about, the things that grow and survive in silence … including what happened after her ex-boyfriend raped her in 2014.

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

HANS
Please note that this episode contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault. Plus some strong language.
[MUSIC STING]
N: Do you think it’s hard for people to understand that you can be going through trauma…and also be who you are…. which is… you’re very…. your default mode is that you’re smiling…
S: Yep.
N: That’s just your beautiful face … and that you do all these things but you can also be carrying… this great weight… and that’s just hard for them to reconcile?
S: Yeah. I was at an art festival a few weeks ago… and there was a woman who approached me who I didn’t recognize…and people do come up to me now and say “thank you for your work”… or “I know who you are and it means something to me to hear your voice.” And this woman came up to me and said “are you Sarah Super?” And I said yes. And she said “oh, you look so good.” And I just thought…I never anticipated hearing that statement before my 10 year hs reunion. I just thought…
N: Look at you!
S: This statement is clearly coming from not me looking good for my age, but for me looking good…in her mind… as a survivor of sexual violence. And I thought “you know, what is it that over a year after my assault, there are people who expect me to be at home crying on a Saturday morning unable to live my life?” It’s almost like…I think people want survivors of sexual violence to be broken… because that’s more understandable….
[THEME MUSIC]
[NARRATION]
I’m Nora McInerny… and this is Terrible, Thanks for Asking… the show where we ask people to be honest when answering the question “how are you?”
Sarah Super is not broken. Sarah Super is a woman who is absolutely, 100% living up to her name. Sarah is a rape survivor. And outspoken rape survivor in a world where our president elect responded to accusations of sexual assault by insulting his accuser’s appearances, in a world where Brock Turner could be caught raping a girl and only serve three months in prison because a judge didn’t want to ruin his life. In a world where, according to RAINN… the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network… 994 rapists out of 1000 walk free. In a world where women are told that avoiding rape is our job: that we should watch where we go, and what we wear, and what we drink…
Sarah says…no. No to all of that. And she lives up to her name every single day: Sarah Super is SuperSarah. She talks about the things that nobody wants to talk about, the things that grow and survive in silence. So I asked Sarah to come to downtown Saint Paul and talk to me about it. It being her rape. By her ex-boyfriend, Alec Neal.
[THEME MUSIC OUT]
I honestly felt like he was the one…and I feel shame saying that…so many people understand my confusion about seeing a really good person who did a really evil thing…some people say he “had a negative energy.” A man reminded me that I had gone on a few dates with him before Alec, and he reminded me, saying that I chose my rapist. Felt shaming. IF I was smarter…if I somehow had a better sense of people would not have been in that situation…what separates me from others is luck. Nothing a woman could do that put this and allow it to happen. … it’s a choice the perpetrator made to assault someone.
NARRATION
This wasn’t a mysterious, shadowy figure who jumped out of the bushes. This was a person that Sarah knew. And liked. And fell in love with. THE COURTSHIP
N: He was a really passionate person and empathic listener. Great conversations. Loved music and dancing, which are mine as well. Liked he was an activist and was examining choices he made in his life. Like all relationships there were flaws. But It was never violent. Didn’t feel manipulative.
N: You dated for?
S: Seven Months. THE BREAKUP
NARRATION
Their relationship continued, and eventually unraveled, like many do: gradually…Sarah discovered that Alec had never finished college, that he worked for his parents business and didn’t seem to have a long-term plan. That the decisions he had made about his health and his finances didn’t align with what she wanted in a long-term partner. Sarah had seen all of these red flags, and then got another one in January 2014… S: It was my birthday. Golden birthday. After a full weekend celebrating with a bunch of people…he said he felt unappreciated. It was just like…already 10 at night…had to work next day….I was like whaaaat? I just brought you along with family and friends for celebrations….don’t understand where you’re coming from…and I have to go to bed. I’m willing to talk about this, but needs to be another time. He wouldn’t let me go to sleep. I began to cry. Moved out to living room couch which had never done. Was crying. HE stood over me for a long time. It was the first time that I was scared of Alec. I said please just go. He had his own place. Took a long time. Heard him finally grab his things and when the door closed…I ran so fast, and I locked that door so quickly…fight flight or freeze moment…he stood outside of door in a threatening way for a while…thought about calling police but was scared….then walked away.
N: Scared then?
S: No. This guy is crazy.
N: But we all say that. About our ex-boyfriends.
S: Here’s the thing that I think was so astounding to me. My alarms didn’t go off. No one had ever talked to me about what this really looks like. I know these things exist. I’d not had one person tell me…before I was raped…that they were a victim of domestic abuse or sexual violence. And that lack of conversation allowed me to be totally ignorant to the storm that was brewing in my life.
[MUSIC]
[NARRATION]
That gradual unraveling was finished, and their relationship ended. But Alec didn’t want it to end, and he kept trying to reach out to Sarah. But he was done. She had boundaries. And then, he threatened suicide. And suddenly it wasn’t a normal breakup anymore. S: No person wants to be the source of someone’s suicide. So at that point I got his parents involved. I called his mom to take care of him. I’m not his girlfriend anymore and I want him to be ok and I don’t want to be the person responsible for him and his health.
[NARRATION]
Because of the suicide threat… Alec’s parents got involved. Alec was staying with them, and they said they’d watch him. They’d keep him away from Sarah. And Sarah felt like she’d done what she needed to do, that her relationship with Alec was over. S: …you know, I trusted his parents… But next night he snuck out of their house…had typed up threatening message…delivered it to my apartment door… and snuck back into their house…whole thing probably about 30 mins given the distance. And they didn’t even know.
N: What did the message say?
S: It said “now that you’re single we should fuck.” Was typed, unsigned, no punctuation.
N: Did you call his parents about it?
S: I did. I woke up at 6am and saw note wedged in door so he had climbed back patio staircase and wedged in door. It was Valentines Day. Also leaving with mom for vacation in Cancun. Had planned because had broken up and was like I don’t want to be alone on valentines.
N: Even at this point you still trust his parents.
S I was so upset they didn’t know he had left house and they were supposed to watch him. N: Why did you still trust them?
S: Is that shaming or blaming?
S: I have lived a life of…I remember in college dropping wallet on bus line 3 times and got everything back. The world has proved to me that it is trustworthy and working in my favor. And not everyone’s had that. That’s the belief I was functioning with at the time.
N: Have left wallet in every single cab I’ve been in. With social security number.
[NARRATION]
So Sarah did what I would have done — what SO MANY OF US who have not experienced trauma would do — she kept trusting in the goodness of the world. And specifically, she kept trusting Alec’s parents to do what they said they would do: watch their son. Keep him away from her. So she went to Mexico like she had planned. She didn’t call Alec, and she didn’t hear from him, either.
We’re goign to take a break… because when we get back… so does Sarah.
[[[[MIDROLL]]]
So… we’re back. When we left… Sarah was on vacation in Mexico… and now she’s back… and everything seems to be fine.
S: My dad picked me and mom up from our mother daughter vacation and…we stopped at whole foods on way back to my apartment. Probably 7pm when we got back. Parents came upstairs with me. I hugged parents, thanked them so much and… it brings tears to think about if that had been last time I saw them I would have been ok with that. I told them how grateful I was for them and time mom and I had spent together. Told how much I love them. My parents and I are really close, so they just told me they were proud of me. Left shortly after goodbyes.
S: I was so…happy. That’s one of the things that really…it just hurts me the most to think about how happy I was. I unpacked my suitcase and I had little souvenirs that I was going to bring to my office next day…earrings to wear….and I set everything out. And…I remember dancing in my apartment…which is something that I actually do a lot…but I just remember that that’s what I did…I danced in my apartment as someone waited to hurt me…and…and it’s so sad to think that like you can go from something…I mean isn’t that how the Hallmark movie always is?…but like…it’s always like so perfect and… NARRATION
Okay. This is the part where we tell you to pause. What we are getting into next is graphic and horrifying and upsetting and real and true. Sarah shared these details with us — and we’re sharing them here — not for shock value, but, because they are shocking. They are the truth of what rape is, and not an abstraction, which is what that word can be. But it is very graphic. And if you are going to be triggered, you can skip ahead to {TIME STAMP}.
Sarah took a shower and went to bed early, with that post-vacation glow, ready to start work again the next day. And then she woke up, in the middle of the night.
S: Feeling someone sitting on side of me. Feel the side of my leg. Edge of the bed with knife to my neck. Feeling of being poked by knife on my neck. I remember opening my eyes and it was so dark and I felt like eyes didn’t adjust. Really diff place. Disorienting. Where am I. Felt so afraid, so dark, the only way I knew what was happening was he started talking. Started to say all of these awful things to me, terrible person I am for breaking up with him, abandoned him, something he repeatedly said, painful things. He told me to take off clothes and….
S: He set the knife on the pillow, blade towards my eye, scared if it moved I would be stabbed in face. I remember him, seeing him erect and feeling how could you, it felt so sick that someone could be aroused at my horror. Licked his hand and penetrated me and I sobbed he would tell me stop crying and he just I don’t know it is kind of a blur to be honest. And then at one point, I don’t know when that stopped, I remember him saying go to living room get on couch and when we broke up to reown my space. First time I ever was on sofa was me being raped and he raped me from behind and I remember turning around to look at him and it was like seeing monster. He had his hand first in air with knife from my butcher block, that feeling of I’m going to die tonight. I just don’t know what instant that could happen. I was crying and I said I need to go to bathroom and he stopped and we went to bathroom and he stood over me with knife in air and watched me. I didn’t know this but if you ever have been sexually assaulted and want to report it, bathroom could wipe away evidence, so… I went to the bathroom and then after that he said get dressed. After that moment I had feeling of I need to escape. Something really bad, surviving rape is horrific, but to feel like this night is going to keep going and have no idea what would happen if I left this space. At that moment I started to plan. His command to get dressed allowed me to go into closet I had… and given that apartment that I was living in was renovated mansion, doors and things you wouldn’t find in newer building, door in my closet. I knew he had never seen me open that door, had opened it only once before to see where it went, hoping for secret passageway but I remember putting on jeans and cracking a joke to try and break rigidness or whatever was felt like person was almost diff person, wanted to do whatever I could to seeing me as human being.
N: Do you remember joke?
S: I was pulling on my jeans and said something along lines of could barely get them on after all-inclusive resort, laughed at myself, he didn’t do anything. Everything I did he was watching me with knife in air. When he turned to get his clothes on, I switched lock to door in closet, to hallway, opened door and flood of light from hallway, he saw what I was doing, swiped knife, sliced palm of my hand in middle and I screamed at top of lungs call police call police it was 3-story building, shared hallway, no one opened doors, where do I go, and… bc I thought he could pull me back in and lock door, I went outside, within a second I made decision and ran outside and banged on neighbor’s backdoor, please help me, they let me in and I remember screaming lock the door, it was at that moment doors locked and shaking my hand bleeding, I remember saying call police and I wasn’t like able to say what had happened in moment, still in need of police to be there, scared… I was fearing my life.
Neighbor called police…. he said my neighbor has been stabbed. Interesting thing to think about and wonder if they would have responded if he had said neighbor was raped. They came right away. And the police asked what happened. It’s amazing bc I had never thought I would ever say I’ve been raped, alec raped me, I was able to tell them what had happened and I felt supported, respected by police, not every survivor’s experience. I remember they allowed me to call a gf who came right over. Came with me to hospital. I remember leaving my apartment building, 12:30, 1 am, and I remember leaving my apartment building and seeing all of the flashing police car lights. Police cars were swarming block I was living on
[MUSIC]
THE AFTERMATH
[NARRATION]
While Sarah had escaped to safety, Alec had just…escaped. Sarah went to the hospital with her friend, where her mother met her. She had a rape kit. And at some point, with the police in her hospital room, her phone rang. It was Alec. S: …I said “where are you?”. And he said “driving to gulf of mexico.” He said “where are you?”…and the police mouthed “you’re at home.” And I’m like “I’m at home… you should come home.” At that point my mom scoffed out loud. I was really angry at her. Upset she made a noise. I asked her about that, she was so angry that they were using you to bring this person back. They have tracking, could find him, don’t put you as a toy.
N: But also you’re Sarah Super and the first thing you did was put it on speaker phone and take it over.
S: Exactly. He was on speaker phone, and he confessed…I asked him “were you in my apartment before I got home?” and he said “yes.”
N: why do you think he called you?
S: …I think he thought he was going to get away with it. I think he felt I was going to feel something and say we’re going to move beyond this. Plenty of people assaulted in relationship who continue on for so many reasons, hard to end something on the spot. Had already known alec wasn’t person for me. Horrific crime. Wasn’t going to let him get away with it if I could help it.
[NARRATION]
But she didn’t tell him that. Instead, she urged Alec to come home.
And for whatever reason, he did. He turned his car around and started heading back to the Twin Cities. He stopped three more times to call Sarah, which gave the police the ability to find him. And within hours, following a high speed chase through the suburbs, he was picked up by the police. And back at the hospital, Sarah was released around 6 am.
S: Went back to parents house, slept for 3 hours. Woke up around 9 and I remember I called Alec’s parents. I just remember sobbing into phone and saying “where were you? You were supposed to be watching him. Where were you in this?” And I have same question still, a year and half later. He was in my apt more than 12 hours. Where were people who’d seen son show behavior and not do anything to fulfill commitment to watch him?
N: What did they say to you?
S: They said “we thought he was at friend’s house.” Which I’m like you knew travel plans, broke out of your house last night I was in town and… we ended the conversation with something like well we’ll let you take control of what you want to do going from here.
[MUSIC]
THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE
[NARRATION]
Sarah and her family didn’t know what was supposed to happen next. They’d never done this before. But her parents called a neighbor who was a defense attorney, and they started taking measures to ensure Sarah’s safety. Things like bars on all the windows at her parents house. Getting a restraining order against Alec. Arranging escorts to and from the parking lot of her office, and finding places she could stay where he wouldn’t be able to find her. …all of this because, yeah, he was being held on bail, but with wealthy parents and a bail bond, you can get out of jail… S: …so I was afraid he’d be out, come back to finish job he started. But it took a few days to realize he wasn’t going to be let out.
[MUSIC]
[NARRATION]
Alec was charged with sexual assault a few days after being picked up by police. Which yeah, he damn well should have been. So that felt like a huge win. You know, JUSTICE! But then the court process kicked off. And with that, came the silence. And the shaming. S: One of the things investigator said was that because some of my work professionally was around trauma and care…that possibly I could have made that story up to further my career…which, of course, is not true. One thing that really stood out to me in my first few weeks after the assault…the legal aid telling me not to talk about it… or to be very mindful of who I talk about it with.
N: Was that a man or a woman?
S: …that was a woman… and I know that she wanted to see my perpetrator be held accountable…and I know that she wanted to protect me… and I can understand from a legal aspect how that might be the case… but I felt like what connected with me the most was when I met with woman who I greatly admire who used to work with domestic violence victims and survivors…and she said “Sarah, you should just do whatever it is that you need to heal”…that should be the most important thing… even more important than holding you perpetrator accountable or obeying the laws of the court… what’s actually the most important thing from her perspective is that I did whatever I needed to heal… and for me that was speaking about it…
[NARRATION]
So that’s exactly what she did. In early April, about six weeks after her assault, she was profiled in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. At the time, Alec was planning to plead not guilty, and Sarah, as the only certified trauma-sensitive yoga instructor in the state of Minnesota, was teaching trauma-sensitive yoga classes for other survivors. S: A bunch of survivors reached out. The stories that struck me the most were the people I grew up with, went to college with… to reconnect with them after so many years over this experience of violence we shared…it was those people…this is happening to so many of us…and it made me feel grateful to have spoken out. But there’s also been so many experiences…so many people are learning about sexual violence and how to respond to survivors at my expense.
[MUSIC]
S: When I broke the silence there was illusion I was being supported. I wanted to carry on. Even though I didn’t know what support looked like there are not enough kale salads and bubble bath to anyone heal sexual assault. There is a huge myth that self-care heals trauma. Total denial of what sexual assault is and how traumatic experiences happen. Sexual violence happens in context of relationship. Strangers, family, school, student, whoever… happens between people as human beings. And so to say to person you can heal in isolation is to actually negate that damage was done between people… and what you really need is for people to rebuild your sense of trust, world is good, you are deserving of being loved.
S: I ended up running into people 6 months later they have to bring up why they haven’t said anything. I’ve been following your story and… If you knew me…and are following this…are you just following this out of drama?
N: Why don’t people say anything?
S: People don’t know what to say. I want survivors to get the right reaction. I have taken it on myself to teach people that it’s important to say something because your silence feels like apathy… and it’s the same apathy I felt from my perpetrator when he assaulted me. So it’s a powerful feeling.
[MUSIC]
[NARRATION]
But not everyone was silent about what had happened to Sarah. Remember Brock Turner’s, case, where his dad wrote a letter to the judge and described his son’s raping of an unconscious woman as “20 minutes of actions”?? — Alec’s parents had also written letters to his judge. And asked members of their community to do the same. S: So there was a full stack of letters from not only the parents of Alec, but also many people in the Twin Cities who really put all the weight in all the choices that Alec had made up until the night that he raped me. And…I just don’t understand why every guy from their perspective…does a guy get one free rape?
N: If you can verify with enough letters that can verify all the other good things you can do.
S: Fortunately Judge Judith Tilson wouldn’t have it. And she was pretty sickened by that stack of letters and…I think it’s appalling because I can almost understand how a parent might not react in a way that you’d want, but it’s amazing to me how many people have rallied around them and… my feeling has always been…since the first day… that Alec is fully deserving of his human rights. To be safe in prison, but also be held accountable. Sexual violence is never committed as an act of self-protection…it’s never done to support your family or to make ends meet… committing an act of sexual violence is something very deliberate and often inflicted on someone in their most vulnerable state such as being passed out after a party…or I was sleeping in my own bedroom….or a child who is helpless… and his clear plan painted that picture pretty well. So it’s hard for me to reconcile the fact that people really wanted to hold on to the belief that somehow he’s better than the rest or that he’s more redeemable than the rest. It’s just this strong urge to believe that how you perceive people is who they are…and that’s not always true.
N: But people contain multitudes. He can be a person who has done something horrifying… but he can also be a person who once rescued a blind puppy from the side of the road.
S: Exactly
N: But it doesn’t mean that the horrible…raping you in your apartment… means less because there’s some sort of checks and balances…
[NARRRATION]
Finally, in July… despite all of the letters extolling Alec’s many virtues, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
S: It was so incredibly powerful because… I got to give a victim’s statement and my lawyer spoke on my behalf.. And then Alec’s lawyer got to speak…and then Alec got to speak after his lawyer, and he gave a very…I thought empty apology. Clearly written by a lawyer to be honest. I was disgusted, and I think what was really awful was that clenching feeling of is this the end? Does he get the last word? …at that point I was really concerned sentencing would end there and that would be all I got. And because we settled on plea agreement instead of a trial or anything, judge Judith Tilsons could have had easy job. But instead she really took time to say “Alec you are exactly the kind of person who would do such a thing…and until you own that fact…if you’re going to continue to defend that this isn’t who you are…you’re not this kind of person… then you can’t heal…. Then you can’t move on.” And so it was just a real, powerful statement of who are rapists… who are perpetrators in our community. And they really can be anybody. And that’s a frightening understanding. But Alec Neal proved that for a lot of people. That it could be the nice, white, educated, talented, liberal white guy in Minneapolis.
N: You could get raped by a democrat. It’s possible.
S: Right…you could be raped by a social activist. And there are people who have been assaulted… and so we can’t allow men to just buy this image.
[MUSIC]
BREAK THE SILENCE
[NARRATION]
Silence is easy. It keeps you from the risk that you may say or do the wrong thing. But silence hurts when you’re on the other end of something awful. It hurts to not be able to say what happened to you, because it’s too uncomfortable for someone to hear. It hurts to tell your story and be met with…nothing. So Sarah started Break the SIlence. It’s a movement, or a Facebook group, or an event, depending on the day. But the ultimate point of it is to help people say something, and to help people hear what was being said. To break the silence that allows rape culture to grow. S: Very few people have ever named themselves publicly as survivors. The idea came to me when I stepped forward, I saw how my friends and family connect with issue and had to learn new language, skills, new way I had to be loved…which was different from before… more sensitive to things, more attuned. And I recognize fact that every person has at least one who are also survivors of sexual violence. We witness amazing things happen with LGBT community started to speak up… that allies could take an active role and say stand with you, you are deserving of your rights. So… I think invitation needed to exist. [NARRATION]
Sarah created the invitation. I went to the first one. I watched people I know and love participate, and tell their story for the first time. I was astonished at the strength of people who walk among us, their stories untold for so long. I was horrified at the cruelty of humans who do this to others, and get away with it.
Here is how it works: survivors can take a number, and when that number is called, they can stand up in front of the group next to a facilitator…
S: And they basically say their name, that they’re a survivor, and that they’re breaking the silence. And they’re welcome to have like 2-3 minutes to share any part of their story or their healing that they feel inclined to share. But it’s really not about a collection of stories… it’s really about a collection of people, of faces, of names. Of people that we know and can identify with and start to see as… this is my friend, my colleague. This isn’t a faceless issue anymore, these are many people in our community. N: After someone breaks the silence and shares their story… what happens?
S: When survivor ends statement, they restate their name and that they’re breaking the silence… and the whole room responds saying “and you are strong, you are courageous, you are inspiring.”
S: Everyone in audience has been writing note cards of support. And so every survivor who breaks the silence gets a bag of all these positive and validating messages that they take home with them. And I have a private facebook group for survivors… and the amount of trust in that group is immeasurable. People name their perpetrators, people expose their most vulnerable selves and triggers… it’s just survivors supporting survivors.
[NARRATION]
Alec Neal is currently one-and-a half years into a 12 year sentence He’ll serve at least two thirds of that sentence.
And Sarah is doing incredible work, and she is very impressive, but she still has to think about what it will be like when he gets out. S: I fear the day he gets out. Because it wasn’t just rape. That night was going to keep going and I escaped whatever else he had planned…but there are signs. The Duct tape he filled his car with and left in my closet. The notes that he wrote. One saying “I’m going to gut you from head to toe.”
N: He left notes?
S: Yeah. In closet he was hiding in. Face mask and gloves, bed sheets, I asked police “what are bedsheets for?” Thinking he would have raped me on his own clean bedsheets… their response was “usually to carry a body.” [MUSIC]
S: I have a hard time getting into mindset what would motivate him to keep living in community and… if I can’t figure out motivation he would feel, it’s hard for me to believe there would be no way in which he would commit murder/suicide as so many domestic abusers do after they’ve threatened to murder their partners so… as much as I believe in court’s process to let him go free after he’s served his sentence… I can also say that I will be afraid.
[MUSIC]
S: This is something I never expected…it has totally changed the course of my life. And…it’s hard for me to…almost even have this recorded because there will be a day when Alec might hear it. And you don’t want to give him…the joy of knowing that like he…he really hurt me.
S: And there’s really no reason…like, when people say “Sarah you’re so….maybe this was meant to happen because you’re doing all this good stuff now.” And I just have such a hard time really thinking about that. Don’t think this was ever meant to happen to anyone. And the world would be better without sexual violence.
N: There are a bunch of alternate universes where this doesn’t happen to you, and you still make an impact on the world. Part of the things where people want you to rise above and take lemons and prove world not cold and terrible place, and that not your job.
S: What was even the question?
N: Important thing is we both cry. That’s what this podcast is. This is a story you do tell. You tell couple hundred times a year. S: Every person who surrounds me says talk about sexual violence every day and …as much as I would say that I would never wish on anyone or that I never wished this happened to me…I can say that I’m tired and overwhelmed and frustrated and angry and confused by the amount of people who do nothing in the face of the amount of sexual violence and people hurting because of it. [NARRATION]
One thing that always stands out to me about Sarah is how she has used her voice to build support for other survivors. While we were working on this episode, the University of Minnesota men’s football team was staging a boycott in support of ten teammates accused of raping a U of M student. And Sarah showed up — on a freezing cold Minnesota day — with Break the Silence. To stand with the survivor. To support her breaking the silence. Not every survivor gets what Sarah got, which is some semblance of justice. Most of them don’t.
Not every survivor gets what Sarah got, which was to be believed. We want to know: was she drinking? What was she wearing? What signs did she miss? How could she have avoided this?
Not every survivor gets what Sarah got, which was support from a bigger community, so she built one.
She makes it look easier than it is, and I know that she is tired and overwhelmed some days, and that the world she would like to live in would be a world where sexual violence doesn’t exist, where there is no need for her to do any of this, but that she’ll keep doing this as long as this world still exists. At his trial, Sarah was worried that Alec would get the last word. We could have reached out to Alec, it was 100% possible, but we didn’t. We didn’t even try. Because the world hears enough from Alec and men like him, and not enough from people like Sarah.
Sarah, I want to tell you and every survivor what you tell the survivors who come to Break the Silence events: You are strong. You are courageous. You are inspiring. I believe you. I stand with you. S: So in awe in strength of people. Feel like before would go on with my life and hear about bad things and wonder how they keep going? Now being that person in the paper it’s amazing to say that I know the strength that exists within the human spirit. Just feel like I am totally in awe of the amount of strength that people have. [THEME MUSIC]