Lydia Tillman



Survivor Extrordanaire

I was walking home to my apartment in Fort Collins, Colorado, after attending the 4th of July fireworks in 2011. 

I was sexually assaulted and strangled by a stranger in my apartment. He beat my head and shattered my jaw, crushed my eye socket, and left me for dead. The man then proceeded to cover up his crime by pouring bleach on my body and setting my apartment on fire. 

Lydia Tells Her Story with Grace, Love & Yes, even Humor

Despite  my  injuries, didn’t  die.  I  somehow  found  the strength  to survive  by  leaping out  of  my second-story window and running into an arriving ambulance.

I didn’t know who the attacker was. I suffered a stroke, leaving me in a coma for five weeks. When  my father arrived at the hospital, he could barely recognize me as his daughter. 

The attack had severely damaged my brain and throat, limiting my ability to speak and leaving me with brain injuries. I needed jaw surgery. I had to relearn how to read, speak and write.  

When I woke from my coma, I learned that the police were already building a case against my attacker for an assault on another woman, an assault that ended in murder

My Statement to my Perpetrator, Travis Forbes was, "You caused me no harm. My spirit, my soul and my mind remain untouched. May you find peace in this life. Travis Forbes, I forgive you.”

While there are moments when I grief what I have lost by this experience It comes down to a choice. 

Do you want to live in love or in fear? I choose love, continuously.

Please LOVE YOURSELF so you can love fully.

Yoga became my therapy then my gift to others in recovery from trauma. I also leave this poem with you


Live Your Days Inspired Anew* 

*( an acronym for LYDIA )

I heard to live your days inspired anew;

A woman who had been attacked said so.

A man broke in her home & beat her blue,

Set her aflame, she leaped & jumped below. 


Two stories, bare & smoking, hit the stone,

Was lifted to a hospital or die.

Induced coma, five months, but ne’er alone;

The love of fam’ly, friends & staff stood by.


At last when she awoke she could not talk,

Or move or think with battered injured brain.

To learn once more to speak & then to walk;

The journey to be Lydia again.


If you go Live Your Days Inspired Anew,

And practice at this each and every day,

What happened to this woman will touch you

In daily aspirations, every way.



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