Years after escaping her kidnapping, Eizabeth Smart addresses USU students
Ten years ago, a 14-year-old girl was sleeping in her bed when she woke up to the words, “I have a knife at your neck, don’t make a sound, get up and come with me.”
Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home June 5, 2002. Her abduction became widely publicized during the nine months she was missing. She was finally found on March 12, 2003.
“I think most of us are very familiar with Elizabeth’s story,” said Arts and Lectures Director Luke Ensign as he introduced Smart to the audience.
Every chair in the TSC Ballroom was filled with students and even non-students there to hear Smart speak during common hour Wednesday. Overflow seating was provided in the International Lounge where a live video was being broadcast.
“It’s great to be here with you today,” Smart said. “The last time I was here I was probably about seven years old.”
Smart told the audience the story of her kidnapping, how she was abducted in the night from her bedroom.
“I thought this has to be part of a nightmare, this can’t be real,” Smart said. “I’m at home in my bed. How is this happening?”
Smart said she could feel a sharp blade lying across her neck and someone’s hand on her arm trying to pull her out of bed.
“That moment gave a new definition to what nightmare meant,” Smart said.
Her little sister was asleep next to her, and Smart said she wondered what would happen to her family if she didn’t go.
Smart was taken up into the mountains and raped, tied up, threatened and held captive for nine months. Smart said she remembers wondering how anyone, including her parents and family could ever love her again after this.
She remembered a specific time in junior high when she had been upset that she wasn’t invited to a popular party. Her mother told her not everyone was going to like her.
Her mother said of all the opinions that are made, only two really matter, the first being God’s.
“He loves you more than you will ever know. You are his daughter and he won’t turn his back on you,” Lois Smart said. “The second person’s opinion who you need to worry about is mine.”
Lois Smart said she would always love Elizabeth.
“You will always be my daughter and nothing can ever change that,” Smart said.
Elizabeth Smart’s captors took her to California and eventually ended up back in Utah, where she was rescued by police in Sandy about 18 miles from her home.
Smart said she was so happy to see her family and hear her mother’s voice again.
“My mom, even to this day, in that moment was the most beautiful person I have ever seen,” Smart said. “If I had to describe what that moment was like in one word, it would be heaven, without a doubt.”
After being home, Smart said her mother gave her the best advice she’s ever been given.
“I’d like to share it with you because I think it can apply to all of us,” Smart said. “Obviously, tailor it to your own situation.”
Smart said her mother told her what this man had done to her was terrible, and that he’d stolen nine months of her life that she could never get back.
“The best punishment you could ever give him is to be happy,” Lois Smart. “It’s to move forward, to follow your dreams and to do exactly what you want to do.”
Elizabeth Smart went on to become an American activist and contributor for ABC News. She attended Brigham Young University as a harp major and served a mission in Paris for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Smart married her husband Matthew Gilmour on Feb. 18, 2012 in the Laie, Hawaii LDS temple.
Smart said how we move on from the past is up to us, even if it’s just having a bad day.
“Sometimes it does take time, sometimes it takes years,” Smart said. “But it is the first step, and that’s all that life is – just a bunch of steps one after the other.”
– tmera.bradley@aggiemail.usu.edu