WORCESTER (MA)
Boston Globe
By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | August 31, 2005
At 52, Patricia Cahill hopes she can finally get past the years of sexual abuse she said she endured as a young girl.
But to start her recovery, Cahill said she needs something she cannot get from therapy. She wants the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester to take down a plaque on campus bearing the name of her alleged abuser, her uncle, the late Rev. Daniel Millard.
Yesterday, Cahill's supporters gathered outside the college with leaflets and posters calling on college officials to rename an art studio now known as the Millard Art Center. School officials have refused to change the name because Cahill's relatives dispute her allegations of abuse. Millard, who was in his late 40s when he died in 1973, was never charged with abusing Cahill.
''I just want to get back to living a normal life," said Cahill, who lives in Lancaster, Pa., and did not attend yesterday's small protest because of lingering health problems she blames on the abuse.
''I don't even know what a normal life is," she said.
Cahill said Millard sexually abused her from the time she was 5 until she turned 13. She said the abuse, which allegedly occurred in New Jersey, was so traumatizing she became dependent on alcohol and drugs. Cahill said she even contemplated suicide.