Reconciliation

Image source: Tao Huang

Stories of forgiveness touch that place in our hearts where we most need to be forgiving, or be forgiven ourselves. This story about Patty Cyr's encounter with a young man at her son's grave in New Hampshire might touch us in just that way...

A mother's chance meeting in the cemetery with the teen accused of causing her son's death in a car crash has prompted a change of heart, and now she says she does not want the teen to go to jail.

Patty Cyr was reading the new "Harry Potter" book to her son's grave on Tuesday when Michael Ramirez walked into St. Patrick Cemetery. "When I saw him, I burst into tears," said Cyr, who demanded last month that Ramirez be jailed for causing the high-speed crash. "He asked me, 'Patty, can I please hug you?' I said 'yes,' and he hugged me so hard I thought I was going to break in half. He said he thinks about Nathan and prays to him every day, and that he's so sorry he hurt my family," she said.

They had not spoken since July 30, the night Ramirez's speeding car veered into the opposite lane on Old Derry Road and collided head-on with an SUV. The crash killed Hergenhahn, a football star at Alvirne High School, who was a passenger in the car. Prosecutors had reached a plea deal that would have spared Ramirez jail time, but they withdrew it last month after the victim's family found photos on a MySpace site showing Ramirez apparently participating taking part in an underage drinking party.

But Friday, Cyr told The Telegraph of Nashua that she's had a change of heart, and does not want Ramirez behind bars. "Our grieving for Nathan will never stop, but I also know that Mickey Ramirez loved him, too," said Cyr. "We don't want to see kids visiting Mickey in jail. It's not going to bring Nathan back." Cyr said she believes her son would have appreciated her graveside reconciliation with Ramirez.

For some, Patty Cyr's reconciliation will make no sense; others will wonder if they could ever do the same; and still others will hope that someone they have offended will one day be as forgiving as Patty was with Mickey.

Sometimes the hurt is so deep, the reconciliation so difficult that the offended one can only place the offender in God's hands, praying that God's mercy will heal what we have been unable to mend. How good is our God whose mercy knows no bounds.

Forgive us our trespasses, Lord, as we forgive those who trespass against us...