PORT TOWNSEND — One therapy for recovery from trauma can be having fun.
Ask Linda LeBrane, a 63-year-old Port Townsend woman who was the victim of a brutal attack June 15, 2000.
Forced off Interstate 84 near Caldwell, Idaho, she was beaten, stabbed 13 times in the chest, back and neck, and left for dead.
On Saturday, with a fake mustache smeared on her upper lip and a pink rhododendron in her bowler hat, LeBrane spent the morning applying makeup for the Lawn Chair Brigade.
She turned 26 “extremely active Port Townsend women” into Charlie Chaplin facsimiles who then did a complicated marching routine using lawn chairs as props in the 76th annual Rhododendron Festival Grand Parade.
She made up a few men, too.
LeBrane is a charter member of the Lawn Chair Brigade, which has been featured in Rhody Fest parades since 2002.
“I started this as a way to get out of the house, and it’s helped a lot,” she said.
“It helped with my muscle motion at first and also forced me out of the house because I was completely isolated.”
After the attack, LeBrane went through months of medical recovery, two years of intense physical therapy and five years of psychiatric treatment.
The 2002 arrest of the four who attacked her was a mixed blessing. They were eventually convicted, but not before LeBrane made numerous court appearances to testify against them.
“I had to go back to Idaho and testify and get fully traumatized four times,” she said.
“They were ordered to pay me retribution, which I’ll never see, but I don’t care.”
Since then, she has worked toward a master’s degree in creative writing from Goddard College.
She will receive the degree in July.
And she gets continuous joy from the Lawn Chair Brigade, which begins rehearsing its routines every March.
“This is a crazy bunch of women, and we have a whole lot of fun,” she said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
