A Vermont woman revealed her new face Wednesday, six years after her ex-husband disfigured her by dousing her with industrial-strength lye.

Carmen Blandin Tarleton of Thetford had face transplant surgery at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital in February and spoke publicly for the first time at a news conference at the hospital last week.

"I'm now in a better place, mentally and emotionally, than I ever could have imagined six years ago," said Tarleton, a former transplant nurse. "I want to share my experience with others, so they may find that strength inside themselves to escape their own pain."

In 2007, the 44-year-old mother of two was attacked by her then-husband, Herbert Rodgers, who believed she was seeing another man. Police say he went to the house looking for that man, then went into a fury directed toward Tarleton, striking her with a bat and pouring lye from a squeeze bottle onto her face. She was trying to crawl to a shower to wash away the chemical. It already distorted her face by the time she got there.

In 2009, Rodgers pleaded guilty in exchange for a prison sentence of at least 30 years.

"I learned that ... forgiveness doesn't condone anything he did and it's not about him -- it's about forgiving him, it's forgiving myself, it's allowing myself to move forward and not getting stuck in the tragedy of that night," said Tarleton, who has undergone 55 surgeries during the past five years.

Tarleton described how it feels to touch and wash her face since her transplant.

She said she still doesn't have full sensation on her new face, but she is experiencing tingling in certain areas. As all that tissue starts to settle, she feels the sensation change almost every week, she said.

"I have been on this incredible journey for the last six years and receiving this wonderful gift ends this chapter of my life," Tarleton said. "What a great way to move forward with what life has for me now."