'I should have been dead.' Survivor to tell harrowing story

Lynn Reilly is a little nervous about the speech she’s about to give on October 30 at the Medical University of South Carolina. “I want to make sure that if even one person hears it and it encourages them, I’ll have done my part.”

Reilly will share her story of enduring years of domestic abuse at the hands of a man now accused of murdering a more recent partner — and how she’s gone on to begin a new life that includes a healthy relationship and a desire to help others.

“My abuser is my ex-husband, who I met in junior high and dated until our senior year in high school. There was no abuse at all during any of that time. And then we got back together in our twenties. And I guess the first time, I was probably about 26. It kind of caught me by surprise because he’d never even raised his voice to me. And then it went downhill from there.”

She says she was beaten, handcuffed, threatened and more. While head injuries from the abuse now affect her ability to remember things like dates, she has no problem with one statistic. “I can tell you clear as day 459 times I should have been dead, whether it was being choked or a gun to my head, a knife to my throat, hit by a car. It’s amazing that I’m here.”

But just when she was at her wits’ end, she made a phone call that took her life in a new direction.

You can hear Reilly’s story at the Oct. 30 Intimate Partner Awareness Rally, which runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the MUSC Horseshoe. This year’s theme is “Survive. Live. Empower.” There will also be speakers who help people get out of abusive situations and others who advocate for survivors, including Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg and the program coordinator for the Violence Against Women Act in South Carolina. The event is open to the public and will include dresses and shirts hung at the rally site to represent women and men killed by domestic partners.

There will be a smaller event on Oct. 29 on the Medical District Greenway, memorializing each of those victims individually. That’s at noon.