NYC rape survivor attacked by creep in closet used her trauma as motivation: Going to war

She turned trauma into triumph.Sarah Clark was raped in her Manhattan apartment in 2000 by a creep who hid in her closet and ambushed her, then disappeared for more than 20 years — but she refused to let it define her life.Clark, 50, now married with three children, found purpose by focusing on the future, filling a niche in the fashion market by designing outerwear for pregnant women even as she continues to heal.“After the rape happened, I somewhere made a decision that I was not going to let him win,” Clark told The Post.“I felt as though I was going to war.

I fought back to get my life together.“I made a conscious decision that I was not going to let him win and dictate my life.”So she founded B&Me — named for her third child, Booker — which produces coats and outerwear for hard-to-fit pregnant moms, an idea that emerged from her own experience as a mother.“I had no idea it was going to be such a big, important part of my healing,” Clark said.

“It gave me something to do with my hands and create, and something that could help me make a difference in so many women’s lives.“I never, ever sought out to do this, and I’m grateful that I had this problem because I was able to channel all of this energy into something where I could create something that I think is so needed and so necessary,” she said.She said the idea came to her while walking the windy streets of the Big Apple with Booker in winter, her hands gripped by the cold as she pushed a stroller and held her preschooler’s hand.“One morning I threw on my husband’s new extra large parka that he just got, and our shared body heat between Booker and I kept us both so warm and bundled.That’s what sparked B&Me.”The clothing adapts to the changes in a woman’s body during pregnancy, with zippers that can be adjusted to adapt to a growing belly and extra pockets and room to cuddle a newborn inside.Meanwhile, Clark resigned herself to the fact that her attacker would...