A Graduate's
Story - Page 2
Then she broke
into a paroxysm of weeping which absorbed her whole body.
As she stood there, alone and stricken, emotionally naked
before us all, another young woman jumped from her seat and
ran to the platform where she threw her arms around the weeping
girl. She hugged her for uncountable minutes as Raye wept
uncontrollably on her comforting shoulder in a cathartic outpouring
that left the audience stunned and tearful.
When she finally
stopped crying, Trainer Bob Kausen gently led her to an understanding
of her experience by questioning her as to its meaning.
Haltingly, she
replied, after much thought, "I want to give myself-to
give love. I want to love and to be loved!'
Her wish was
father to the fact. We all loved her. We had seen an astounding
display of courage and honesty which had left us limp. We
wanted to help her free herself from torment, her guilt absolved.
But there is
more to the story than that. During the lunch break, Raye
telephoned the district attorney who had prosecuted her and
told him that she wanted to change her story and to tell him
the truth about the whole episode which she had denied during
the trial. He said he would send someone down to Pleasanton
to take her statement. This is of special significance because
her case is on appeal and, until her Lifespring experience,
she had been determinedly seeking a reversal of her conviction.
Later, in an
interview, she told me that the Lifespring experience was
probably the turning point in her life.
"It has
taken a terrible weight off my shoulders," she said.
Now her hair was pulled back from her face, caught in a clasp
at the nape of her neck, and we could see her smiling face.
"I'm so
happy," she said. "I'm free, and I don't have to
hide anymore. I had expected when I was standing up there
with my eyes closed that everyone would hate me, but, when
I opened my eyes, all I could see on their faces was love.
I never have felt anything so intensely before."
You have never
seen such a happy girl.
Now she plans
to study zoology in hopes of preparing herself for some kind
of work with animals if her life sentence is ever modified.
"I've always
loved animals", she said. "I would like to work
at Marine World or someplace like that, or work for a vet!"
But whether
or not Raye ever gets out of prison, she will have learned
to live with herself and to make the most of her life under
adverse circumstances.
That's her
firm belief, and she freely credits Lifespring for her new
vision.
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