Michelle Corrao Releases Inspirational Book On Her Journey

Writer / Renee Larr

Photography Provided

After a long day of work, Michelle Corrao was driving home when she noticed two men walking down the middle of her street. Her intuition told her not to go home. She drove around the block, and when she returned they were gone.

As she approached her front door, she was knocked to the ground. What ensued afterward can only be described as a violent sexual assault.

“Riding home from the hospital the next day, I looked out the window and wondered what the people in the other cars were going through,” Corrao says. “I wondered how I was ever going to get through this. I had so many different emotions. I felt like I needed to speak with someone who had gone through something similar, and that was really hard to find.”

After years of hard work overcoming her trauma, Corrao decided to writer a book, to provide a voice she’d needed back in 1996. The book, titled “Found – Triumph Over Fear With Grace and Gratitude: The Michelle Corrao Story,” was released in February of this year.

“Everyone kept telling me I needed to write a book about my story,” Corrao says. “I learned a lot of things along the way that I didn’t find out until even a few years ago. I fought like crazy to get the person who I was before back. It had to be a realization on my part that it probably wouldn’t happen. Those darkest days were the days where I was healing the most.”

Corrao knew confronting those emotions was the only way to heal.

“I had so much support, but no one else can understand what you’re going through unless they’ve been through it,” Corrao says. “You feel so alone and isolated. That’s why I wrote the book. Hopefully, it can help others heal quicker than I did.”

While Corrao doesn’t shy away from the details of her assault, she wants readers to know the book isn’t just about the night of the attack.

“The book isn’t all about the content of my story, but more about the aftermath of it,” Corrao says.

She credits her faith for helping her to move forward.

“My faith is first and foremost the center of my life,” Corrao says. “I’m trying to pay it forward and serve. We can all do nice things for people, but it’s really sitting with the broken that’s important.”

Corrao wants grieving individuals to know a happy life is attainable, even after the darkest moments.

“Many more good things than bad have come out of my story,” Corrao says. “I want people to know a happy life is attainable. I’ve had people reach out to me, and they’ve picked out a couple of different things in the book that supported their journey.”

Corrao serves as executive director for the O’Conner House in Carmel. Previously, she worked as the assistant director at Noblesville-based Prevail.

For more information or to purchase the book, visit michellecorrao.com.