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November
27, 2002
It was a shocking and tragic story. A young girl savagely
beaten with a hammer -- the suspect caught in the act. The
child rushed to a hospital, near death.
Now, three months later, it is a story that is moving miraculously
toward a happy ending.
For the first time, the victim speaks about her life -- a
life pointed away from a horrible moment, toward a hopeful
future.
Artist...
Poet...
Sister...
Friend...
Eleven years old, and Charlotte had her whole life ahead of
her.
"She was such a beautiful girl before this happened,"
said Camie Hansen, a registered nurse at Primary Children's
Hospital.
But one night last summer everything changed.
"I was just amazed. How could anyone have done this and
how can she ever survive?" Hansen says.
Battered beyond recognition and near death, Charlotte's mother
didn't believe it was her daughter. But then she saw her hands.
"Those hands you remember when they're babies, when you
teach them how to walk and teach them how to eat," says
Sharon Zhne, Charlotte's mom.
"Or when you're just playing kiss them when they're sleeping,
you don't ever forget those hands," she says.
Days went by and Charlotte barely moved. Doctors feared she
may have suffered brain damage.
Then her favorite song came on in her hospital room.
"She was going like this in her bed and I thought that
is so Charlotte," Zhne says.
"Most of the nurses have said, if this had happened to
me, I would have curled up in a ball and let the world pass
me by, but she didn't. She fought and she fought and she fought.
She has overcome so much," Hansen says.
After two grueling months of physical therapy and facial surgeries...
"I'm glad that I'm alive," Charlotte says.
She's just 11...
But Charlotte knows what takes many a lifetime to learn.
The past, she says, belongs in the past.
"There is nothing I could do about it -- it just happened.
I'm not mad, I did everything I could," Charlotte says.
"She surprises me. She's stronger than I ever could be,"
Zhne says.
"She is truly amazing," Hansen says.
You see it was Charlotte's face that was beaten...not her
spirit.
"I don't really care what I look like," she says.
"She's still here, still very much alive, jazzy and full
of life -- full of life and that's what I thank God for,"
Zhne says.
Reading with her left eye, the only one she can see with.
"Dear Charlotte, how are you feeling?"
Charlotte counts the thousands of blessings mailed to her
from across the country.
"Kids all ages have been sending me letters and stuff.
It's just amazing," she says.
Messages of encouragement from children, adults, even inmates
from the Davis County jail.
"My heart goes out to you," one letter says.
"They showed us that there's one bad thing. There's so
many people out there saying we're praying for you, keep going.
Life's a struggle but keep doing it," Zhne says.
And Charlotte does.
Not with anger, but with poetry.
This poem was written while she was in the hospital.
"I look up in the sky and raindrops fall on my face,
it's cold," Charlotte reads. "A beautiful rainbow
is there -- red, orange, green and blue. It's almost like
new."
And so slowly is Charlotte.
Almost like new.
"She's just beautiful," says Pat Messer, Charlotte's
grandmother.
One painting.
One poem.
One dance at a time.
It won't be easy, but she's 11-years-old with her whole life
ahead of her.
Charlotte will undergo facial and dental surgeries for most
of her life.
The next operation is scheduled for next month.
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