A few months ago Bridget Kelly was ABC's Our person of the Week.
Self-study activity:
Watch the clip and answer the questions below about it.
1 How long ago did the events in the story happen?
2 Where did the events happen?
3 Which two crimes was Bridget the victim of?
4 What do the figures "three", "two hundred" and "six" refer to?
5 How did Bridget meet Eric Strauss, her will-be husband?
6 Which three nouns does Bridget use to describe the way she felt right after the attack?
To check your answers, you can read the transcript below.
Our person of the week. Ten years ago she met someone under unusual and hard-breaking circumstance, beginning a remarkable and healing journey, one that’s inspired so many people along the way and does still today. It’s the walk down the aisle of which every bride and her father dreams. But this walk for this bride stepped in a journey from the depths of darkness. That’s because ten years ago the bride Bridget Kelly was nearly broken by violent tragedy. An attacker took her to an empty field. I got down on the ground and he raped me. Next he told me to get up and I did, and he sort of gestured, indicated where he wanted me to stand and, so I was standing with my back to him. He would shoot her three times, leaving her for dead. But Bridget rose. Somehow making the 200 long yards to a neighbour’s home. After six hours of surgery, her life was safe with her father constantly be her side. I heard her say she thought she had been lifted up by God. And I said “Where was God 10 minutes earlier?” so much bitterly. She said very calmly “He was there holding my hand.” My name’s Bridget… Her wounds would heal and again she rose, speaking out of what had happened to her, showing us that she was not ashamed, that a victim of rape need not be a victim at all, and need never live in fear. ABC News covered the courageous story, that’s when she met a young producer named Eric Strauss. One of the things I was first impressed with Bridget when I met her after working on her story was how she had been through so much, I think a lot of people would’ve just given up. A friendship began and then a relationship brewed. Love, life slowly eclipsing the horrors of the past. Early on I had a lot of fear and anxiety and sadness about what happened but I always looked forward knowing that happy times are ahead. And they were. A lot of people are like “It’s such a happy ending.” And I think Bridget want people to know it’s sort of like a happy beginning for us. A dance for a married couple. And then one for her father to a song chosen by his daughter. I knew that would be special for me and my Dad especially, because we’ve been through, you know, dark times together and this was just clearly such a happy, happy day.
