Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Oct. 4--At 17, Kristen Anderson left a note saying she was going to take a walk, but instead tried to end her life by lying down on railroad tracks.
Both of her legs were severed, but the Lake Villa teen did not die.
Six years later, she credits God with using her to help bring new life to others.
While not wanting to be portrayed as a hero, she recognizes that her suicide attempt on Jan. 2, 2000, was a catalyst for change for herself and others as she tells her story at high schools, churches and other national locations. On Wednesday, she will be one of several people featured on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" who tried, without success, to kill themselves.
"It wasn't my place to take my life," said Anderson, 24, a student at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago who is studying women's ministries. "I didn't realize until then that God created me and everyone else for a purpose."
She has started a nonprofit group, Reaching You Ministries, to help other women and teens in crisis through spiritual guidance and encouragement.
Her story begins with an unusual series of tragedies that occurred over 18 months while she was attending Antioch Community High School. She said that four friends died--two from accidents, one from cancer and the fourth from suicide. Her grandmother died, and two boys began harassing her, she said.
Anderson said she smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol and rebelled throughout her junior and senior years. While at a party, she says, an acquaintance raped her, which she says she never reported to police and told her parents about only last year.
"I tried to handle it all on my own," said Anderson, who said her family attended a Lutheran church regularly but it held little meaning for her at the time.
"I didn't talk to people about how I was feeling. Once I was raped, I started blaming everything on myself," she said.
She became physically ill, and her parents took her to several doctors and counselors who tried to treat her for stress.
She considered ways to commit suicide, deciding that she was least likely to live if she was hit by a train.
Her mother said she awoke from a nap that January day to find a note on the dishwasher that said: "Mom, I need time to think. I'm going to take a walk."
"I was worried. I just had this feeling something was wrong," said her mother, Jan Anderson of Lake Villa.
She and her husband phoned their daughter's friends and co-workers at a pizza shop, then drove around town searching for her before hearing sirens near their home. A friend called and said a girl had been found on the railroad tracks.
Within the hour, police confirmed that her daughter had been taken to a McHenry hospital, Jan Anderson said. Her legs had been severed, but Kristen, who remained conscious through the ordeal, would live.
"I was pushed against the ground harder than I have ever felt," said Anderson, who remembers the incident clearly. "My fists were clenched. My eyes were closed. ... I wasn't sure if I was alive or dead."
Anderson remembers pulling herself out from under a train car, realizing her legs were gone, and then screaming in pain, crying out for her mother.
Within moments, she began to calm down, she said.
"I just felt this peace," Anderson said. "I started thinking I was dying. I started hearing [the song] 'Amazing Grace' over and over in my head. ... I think God was showing me he was all I needed."
For months afterward, Anderson struggled to make sense of the fact that she was still alive, she said. People kept telling her she was alive for a reason, but she couldn't figure out what it was.Over time, she questioned others and began to believe that her life was a gift and that by faith in Jesus Christ, she would go to heaven, she said.
Anderson earned an associate's degree through an online program offered by Moody. Community members raised money to help her obtain a bachelor's degree at Moody's Chicago campus, where she recently started her first semester.
Janet Skeels first heard Anderson tell her story during a Christian women's retreat two years ago. She led efforts to raise Anderson's tuition money.
"For her to get from there to where she is now is truly amazing," said Skeels, 49, of Volo.For information, e-mail Reaching You Ministries at generalmailbox@ReachingYou.org. The group may also be reached at P.O. Box 56, Lake Villa, IL 60046.
lblack@tribune.com
-----
Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
