Son took mom on adventure after father’s death, then she was attacked (exclusive)

Guerrilla AID activist Barton Brooks can still remember every detail in the moments when his life changed in an instant.

In 2009, Brooks turned a corner on his motorcycle in Uganda as he collided with a country Rover.

“I crushed my femur, broke both shoulders, my arms and tore off my knees,” Brooks says. Completely mobile, he remembers “looking up and looking at the clouds pass over this really light blue sky and thought I would die at that moment.”

Fortunately, he was drawn into a taxi and brought to a border clinic where he was treated by visiting a doctor before flew to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, to undergo several operations.

“They had no real anesthesia, so they just dropped me in a k-hole on ketamine and started cutting my thigh and shooting my femur again,” he says. “I was awake for everything.”

Brooks then encountered a difficult recovery process that shook his self -image and led to a struggle with post -traumatic stress disorder.

“I became a completely different person,” he says. “One day I’m on a motorcycle in Africa, working with the most beautiful people and doing good things. And the next day I’m stationary. I’m stuck in a bed. It ended up for several years.”

But the positive result was to reconnect with his family, including his mother Carla, who became her husband’s caregiver after he had a stroke 20 years earlier.

“She was pretty much with him around the clock and took care of him,” Brooks said. “They would come on Woodstock and until his death she would spend as much time she could with me and bring him.”

Brooks, who got his love for travel from his mother, says that after his father’s death, everything changed again.

“My mom took care of my dad for a full 20 years and when he passed away, she was a little freed from daily care,” says Brooks.

Now that she had more time, Brooks developed a plan to get them back on the road – and take her on a trip around Europe.

“20 places for each year she gave Dad,” he explains. “She was happy and that was me too.”

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They documented their journey in a blog and People covered the trip Also with readers who send tips for Mother-son duo.

“The happiest day was when we were at Charles Bridge in Prague and it was freezing cold. And my mom was in this huge winter coat with this big hood and she looked over the bridge and these two guys went against us,” says Brooks. “They came up and they recognized us from the folk stories and we became friends. And we are actually still friends with Bill and Keith from Ohio to this day.”

But the tragedy struck a few months after the couple returned to the states when a man entered Carlas home in St. George, Utah, as she slept, filled a cloth in her mouth and raped her.

“I would get hit by a truck a thousand times to hear the words” your mother has been raped, “recalls Brooks.

The attacker, Spencer Monnettwas eventually captured and later invoked guilty. He was Sentenced to at least six years in prison. The Utah Department of Corrections The site indicates that he is on trial. Correction officials did not immediately respond to a request for further information about Monnett’s release.

Carla – as she said Forgive him During his judgment hearing in 2019 – he became a Proponents of survival of sexual abuse.

“She found her strength again,” says Brooks and stifles. “Seeing the pendulum swing back again to see her standing strong as not a victim, but as a warrior it was another highlight.”

When Carla died in October 2022Brooks was at another crossroads.

“My only good feelings came from taking care of my mother so with her away and the remains of who I used to be, I was completely confused about who I would be or what I would be,” he says.

“I couldn’t see the good in the world anymore and I really struggled, really,” he adds.

Eventually he sought therapy with Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, author of The body keeps the point: brain, mind and body when healing trauma.

“He helped me kind of through many of these things, to help me see that there was something beyond just this immediate dark sludge that I couldn’t see through, and then I could get my layers again,” explains Brooks.

Through his doctor’s encouragement, Brooks began to reach out to people who have always supported him and eventually began to travel again, albeit at a different rate than when he was in the 30s.

“The trips slowed down. I just started to enjoy being where I was and started trying to get in touch with my hosts or the local organization I worked with and saw exactly what they needed when I got to know them,” says Brooks.

Now he settles at home in New York and finds ways to help locally – at least for now.

“I don’t have to do big, big things anywhere,” says Brooks. “I can only stay in my own community and make some changes here.”

Through his recovery process, Brooks says he has learned that it is never too late to restart.

“When I was in my lowest moments, I really thought the best times for me, the best versions of me were long gone,” he adds. “But one thing I learned is that you are never too broken to be brave.”