Re: Hi Mavric
Submitted by Mavrick on 2002-10-10 20:24:01, Thursday
In reply to Hi Mavric submitted by Halo on 2002-10-10 04:51:21, Thursday
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Halo, Thanks for the comments and thoughts, as well as the prayers.I will keep you and your yf in my prayers. J is doing better with the passing of time. I think Christmas will be the hardest on him, mainly because it is the first one since his mom passed away. He hasn't woken up in the past couple of nights and seems to be settling in. The biggest thing that we have yet to do is decide what to do with his mom's belongings. She had left me the house in her will, but J doesn't want to stay there because it hurts too much. He's more comfortable at my house. But I don't want to sell her house yet. There's no payments other than taxes, which I can handle. But I want J to make the decision on selling the house. I have been considering buying another house and moving out into the country a little more. The main reason is that J's mom's house is just down the road and anytime we go anywhere we have to pass by it. And evey time we do, J just stares out the window looking at the house. That's a problem with living on a "dead end" road. I have talked to J about it and asked me to give him some time to think about it. I told him there was no rush, as long as he could handle it. I did forget to mention that the drunk driver was not injured severly in the accident. He got some glass in his face and cracked a rib, but that was all. He was tried and convited of manslaughter. When we went to court for the hearings on the first day, J went after the man, screaming at him and telling him he hated him. I had to remove him from the courtroom. All his anger was focused on that man and I honestly think he would have killed him if he had the chance. J said he hoped the man would get the chair. In a way, I agreed. But I had a long talk with J about forgiveness and how if Christ has forgiven us, we can do nothing less regardless of what has happened. The trial took eight days. On the last day of the trial J asked the judge if he could speak. Caught me by surprise. This 13 year old boy got up and faced the man that killed his mother,standing right in front of the table the man was seated at. With tears running down his face he told the man how his father had died when he was 8 months old and that his mom had raised him alone. He told the man the things he loved about his mom and how she took pride in her work as a nurse. He told him about the good memories that he had of his mom and how he would never be able to make new ones. He then took a deep trembling breath and said "You killed my mom. I loved her more than anyone and you took her away from me. But mister,..........I forgive you." And with that he came over to me and started crying on my shoulder. The sourtroom so quite that you could have heard a pin drop. With the judge's permission, I took J into the hallway. I told him how proud I was of him. He said he wanted to be there when the judge sentenced the man. After J regained his composer, we went back in and the judge asked if everything was alright. I simply nodded. "Yes, your Honor." We sat down and the man asked if he could speak. The judge agreed. The man stood up, chains around his ankles and handcuffs on his wrists. He looked back at J and with more sincerity than I have ever heard in my life said "J, I am so sorry." With tears on his face, the man sat down. The judge waited a moment and pronounced sentance: 15 years for manslaughter. I looked at J and all he did was stare at the judge, tears on his face. I couldn't figure why, and I still don't know. J won't tell me. About a week ago I received a call while I was in my office at the church. It was from the man that had killed J's mom. It took all of the self- control I could manage to talk to him. He asked if it would be possible for me to bring J down to visit him at the prison. I asked him why. He said that all he could do since he sentenced was think about what J had said and that he wanted to talk to him. And he also wanted to me about my beliefs. I told the man that I would come down to visit him, but that I would have to talk to J about his visiting and that I would try to let him know. We go on Saturday to see the man who killed J's mom. |
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