People.com Celebrity Cleveland Kidnap Survivors: Inside Their Emotional Reunion "They have a genuine happiness to be alive," a lawyer tells PEOPLE By Sandra Sobieraj Westfall Sandra Sobieraj Westfall Sandra Sobieraj Westfall is the White House and National Political Correspondent for PEOPLE. She also writes for and occasionally senior edits the magazine's Crime section and the brand's Let's Talk About It mental health series. Westfall joined PEOPLE in 2003 as Washington Bureau Chief and specializes in bringing readers inside the personal experience of political life. She twice won the White House Correspondents' Association Merriman-Smith Award for excellence in presidential reporting under deadline pressure (for her inside-the-room election night exclusives on the "snippy" phone call between Al Gore and George W. Bush in 2000; and the hear-a-pin-drop silent moment in 2008 when Barack Obama, holding his mother-in-law's hand, took in the news that he would be America's first Black president). Prior to joining PEOPLE, Westfall was a White House Correspondent for The Associated Press after beginning her career in Congress, where she wrote legislation on women's health, mental health, and domestic violence. A native of Rochester, New York, she received her Bachelor's degree in politics (with a certificate in Latin American studies) from Princeton University, and a Master's degree in journalism from Stanford University. People Editorial Guidelines Published on July 10, 2013 08:00 AM Share Tweet Pin Email When Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight reunited July 2 to record a video thanking supporters, they could not hold back their emotions. “They cried and hugged. They have genuine happiness to be alive, to be out there, to just BE,” Chris Kelly, the lawyer managing the Cleveland Courage Fund on behalf of the women, says in this week’s PEOPLE. In the video that posted Tuesday on YouTube, they thank family, friends and complete strangers for the outpouring of support they’ve received since escaping alleged kidnapper Ariel Castro after a decade in captivity. Castro has pleaded not guilty to 329 counts including 139 charges of rape. WATCH: Cleveland Kidnapping Survivors Speak Out in New Video “It’s beyond belief. You’d think [the women] wouldn’t want to see each other because of the memories,” says Kelly. “There’s a bond there.” But despite the ordeal, the women came carefully prepared with their statements. “They wrote them. We were thinking they were going to ask us to write, but they all came with their handwritten notes,” says Kelly. “One of the lawyers here read them and said, ‘Don’t change any of this.'” For the full story on how Berry, DeJesus and Knight have fared since their escape – including exclusive and inspiring detail on the resilience of the 6-year-old girl Castro fathered with Berry – pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday