This is a story about one victim. Her name was Sheila A. Gawrys. She was my wife and best friend for more than 23 years. She was forcibly raped 100 to 200 times by a family member as a small child.Sheila gave birth to our son at 19 years old. Sheila was warned against having any more children but the doctors were very vague as to why.She became pregnant three months later and at her first checkup, cancer cells were found. A medically necessary abortion was performed to treat the cancer and save Sheila's life. This was our child. This time we got more warnings from the doctors. At age 25 cancer returned with a vengeance. A total hysterectomy was performed and the surgeon informed me that severe internal scarring had, in his opinion directly led to the breakdown of the tissue inside her body and this led directly to the cancer.I was devastated. Sheila ignored this and was more concerned with keeping the peace in her birth family at all costs. She threatened at this time to divorce me if I told the authorities about the rapes.Around this time we got custody of my two children from a previous marriage and Sheila buried herself in raising our family. At around the time that our youngest child left home to join the Marines, Sheila changed. She lost a lot of weight and dramatically changed her appearance.She accepted an offer from her childhood attacker to help him start a business from scratch. She had a business degree and he needed her expertise. I was frantic and did all that I could do to stop it but she was determined. She left me and we divided our estate. Her perp promised to give her a motorcycle franchise as repayment for her help and also to repay her for ruining her childhood. Sheila worked 100 hours a week. She wrote the business plan for the bank loans. She lined up all of the vendors. She essentially built this business from the ground up. It was an overnight sensation, financially. After a few months Sheila was fired by the perp and falsely accused of theft. When I saw her that day, she had aged 10 years in one day. She said she had allowed him to hurt her again.I saw something in her eyes that day that I will never forget. It was the prelude of death.She eventually came home but as the days went by over the next three years, my wife and best friend died one day at a time.I watched helplessly as she was eventually put on a half dozen medicines for what her Psychiatrist called the worst case of PTSD that he had ever seen . She was on pain meds as well as her body was tricked into thinking that she was decades older because of the hysterectomy and menopause at age 25.Over the last three years Sheila aged what looked like forty years. On July 4, 2005 Sheila passed away in her sleep. When I found her lifeless body, my heart shattered into millions of pieces. The task of putting them back together again is exhausting.I sent Sheila's story, along with the devastating photo's of her demise to Gov john Lynch and former Atty General Kelly Ayotte of N.H. I gave them permission to pass it around to the NH legislators as there was a bill before them that was doomed to fail. It called for 25 years to life for rape of a child under the age of 13 and it was short more than 100 votes. Four months later it passed by a wide margin.The next year the same scenario played out in Massachusetts when a similar bill was short by 100 votes in the state senate the day before the final vote. I shared the story with the Mass. legislators the day of the vote and it passed by a wide margin. The bill, which called for 30 years to life for rape of a child under the age of 13 is now law. It was as if Sheila herself had reached down and gave it a push. Now I am on, to the statute of limitations in NH. At the present time it is 22 years past the victims 18th birthday.So essentially the law says that these victims who have had their very souls destroyed, have to be strong enough by age 40 to come forward or their perp walks. Not fair. Sheila was ready by he time she was 39 but missed the Mass. statute by two years. He walks free as we speak. I have chosen to look at Sheila's very tragic story as maybe God decided to open a little window to show the injustice and force change. Do not worry Lord, I am on it full time. Please help me pass this bill to make sure that these animals no longer get several bites of the legal apple only to be released so they can rape some more. Their victims suffer a fate that in many cases is worse than death. They must live after being defiled in ways that we can only imagine while their perps walk among us. The late Rose Kennedy said it well. It has been said that time heals all wounds.I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens.But it is NEVER gone. Sincerely, Edward A, Gawrys jr Manchester NH