Lye Victim Reveals Forgiveness and Blessings Following Horrifying 2-Day Attack
Lye victim Carmen Tarleton has spoken about her forgiveness to the husband who beat and disfigured her beyond recognition. She talks in depth about blessings and forgiveness in her new book which talks about the horrifying ordeal and attack she went through and how she feels about the incident now.
Tarleton was attacked by ex-husband, Herb Rodgers, who mercilessly beat her with a baseball bat – breaking her arm and fracturing her eye socket. He then doused her body all over with industrial strength lye, leaving her with severe burns all over her body and with permanent disfiguration. He has now also been recognized as legally blind following the ordeal.
However, Tarleton has not wallowed in self-pity over what happened and has not allowed depression to overcome her. Rather she has testified how she feels "so much more blessed than I was" before the attack, according to the Associated Press.
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"I think I can help a whole bunch of people, not just domestic violence people," she said. "I think I can help a whole bunch of people wherever you are in your life."
Her memoir " Overcome: Burned, Blinded, And Blessed" was worked upon as she underwent numerous surgeries to help repair the damage done to her body in the 2007 attack.
However, reliving the two-day attack was difficult for her. She writes in the book: "I felt physically ill with what I was doing. The experience of reliving that night, trying to capture every detail as vividly as I remembered it, was sickening. Halfway through, I let my pen drop and rushed to my bedroom, the edges of my limited vision blackening."
The book reveals details of facing her ex-husband in court, as well as going through the ups and downs of her rehabilitation. The book also describes the amazing support and live she received from family and friends in the aftermath.
"When life gives you a big negative situation like I'd been through, if you can get through that, you can really find all of the blessings and all of the positive things that can come out of that," she has said. "And I found so much that I would not go back."
The lye attack victim also maintains a blog on her book's website, which attempt to teach others the virtues of positive thinking and to provide inspiration to others going through difficulties.
"After my injury, I felt that I made the choice to live, so I was going to find my way back to happiness. I had to find that natural confidence in life that I had as a child; that feeling that all is well even though you have no idea what is going to happen, and the feeling that you can control a lot of what you live, just by attitude alone," she writes.
"Patience isn't really patience at all. It is the ability to watch life unfold right before you, without the need to have it different than what is. It is the knowing that you knew as a child. The one you let go of. Go back there and you will find many gifts; Gifts you would never have consciously given away."
