At 32, Ralina Miller describes herself as independent, stubborn and strong-willed. Remembering herself as a child, she chooses different words.
“I was a calm, quiet little girl — prior to the rape,” she said.
Over lunch Thursday, the Marysville woman frankly answered questions that were hard to ask. Her living nightmare began on an evening that should have left her with nothing more than a happy girlhood memory.
On Feb. 12, 1988, a day after her own 10th birthday party, Ralina went to a slumber party at a girlfriend’s house. She was raped by her friend’s cousin, a man who’d been left to baby-sit the girls. He was convicted in January 1990 of first-degree statutory rape, according to a Herald article by longtime reporter Jim Haley. The man served just three years in prison and died in 1993, Miller said.
Being raped at 10 is more than enough misery for anyone to carry. Miller has had to bear so much more. Later in 1990, after the man’s conviction, Ralina and her mother, Kay Sarsten, learned from the Snohomish Health District that the girl had tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus that can cause AIDS.
Miller lives with the life-threatening consequences of that terrible night. She has not developed AIDS, but remains HIV-positive and has other health problems. Nonetheless, she has fiercely shared her story with a mission of helping others. She has worked with others to change laws, and today is a mother of her own two girls, ages 5 and 13.
Miller has now reached a wider audience. Her ordeal is the subject of a short film, “Rise N’ Shine” A Hero’s Journey,” which was shown at Seattle’s Egyptian Theatre on Saturday as part of the Seattle International Film Festival. Directed and produced by Timothy McCormack and Rohit Agarwal, the film was part of a festival program called Northwest Connections.
The film title “Rise N’ Shine” is also the name of a Seattle-based organization that works with children whose lives are affected by AIDS. Founded by Janet Trinkaus, who also appears in the film, the nonprofit agency operates support groups and a summer camp, and provides help for families struggling with AIDS and HIV.
“People think AIDS is manageable with the drugs,” Trinkaus said. “It’s not fun, it’s not easy, it’s a horrible disease. Parents are living much longer, but we need to be there for the kids.”
Trinkaus said that although the alienation AIDS sufferers experience is less than in the 1980s or early ’90s, the disease is still a secret for many. “Kids don’t go to school and say, ‘I’ve got to take care of my mom, she has AIDS,’ ” Trinkaus said.
McCormack and Agarwal are novice movie makers. They met in a University of Washington Extension filmmaking class. “This was our class project,” said McCormack, a Seattle attorney. “Tim and I were both of the same mind, we wanted to make something with a message of hope,” said Agarwal, a software engineer.
When they met Trinkaus, she told them Miller’s story. Through their research, they learned about what McCormack calls “AIDS fatigue,” a general lack of interest in a grim subject. They aimed to break through by revealing a real person who has dealt with the disease, Agarwal said.
“We came across this really powerful story,” McCormack added. “It’s about two extraordinary women who find hope and magic.” At Rise N’ Shine, Trinkaus said, support groups are called “magic circles.”
Miller has been reaching out to help almost since she learned she had the AIDS virus. Much of the film is archival footage. She appeared on KOMO-TV’s “Northwest Afternoon” program in 1992 when she was 14. At 17, she spoke on “The Phil Donahue Show,” and talked to a teen audience about how to prevent AIDS and “to be compassionate and caring to those who have it.”
She spoke to the state Legislature in the early 1990s, and lawmakers enacted new penalties for an assault against a child and for knowingly transmitting diseases.
Miller said she has survived so long because she has rare and potent antibodies that apparently keep the virus from developing into AIDS. She participated in a National Cancer Institute study for the drug 3TC, and is now part of a National Institutes of Health study that could help in the quest for an AIDS vaccine. Neither of her daughters has HIV.
“My original doctor thought I’d be dead in six months,” she said. “My main goal now is to inspire the ones who’ve lost hope, not to look at it as a death sentence.
“If I can go through everything I’ve been through and be where I am today, it shows them they can too. There’s hope,” Miller said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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