This is one of the most heartbreaking, tragic, and yet inspiringly beautiful stories about the power of forgiveness and reconciliation that I have ever come across! In 1993 Mary johnson’s 20 year old son was murdered in a gunfire scuffle against 16 year old Oshea Israel. The death of a child is amongst the most excruciating experiences for a loving parent to go through, however Johnson was able to pull through and signal a beam of hope for herself and her community.
After her son’s murder, Israel was sent to prison, where he carried out his sentence for 17 years, Johnson had all that time to get over the anger and sadness that losing her son left her. She decided a drastic decision was in order to move on, years after the sentencing she visited Israel, “I wanted to know if you were in the same mindset of what I remembered from court, where I wanted to go over and hurt you,” Johnson tells Israel. “But you were not that 16-year-old. You were a grown man. I shared with you about my son.”
Then she hugged him and in that moment everything changed. When Oshea was released from prison, Mary became a mother figure and mentor to Oshea.
Please share Mary’s kindness with all your family and friends!
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