There are few things more powerful than forgiveness, and on today's radio show Glenn invited two men on to share their inspiring and almost unbelievable story. In 2007, Chris Williams and his family were driving home when they were struck by a drunk driver, Cameron White. In the accident, Williams lost his wife, two young children, and his unborn son. In the moments after the accident, Williams knew that rather than harbor anger at the driver, he would forgive him. Today
"The story of these two men is absolutely incredible. It is a story of forgiveness and forgiveness of yourself and a willingness to let it go. And what a powerful story it is," Glenn said.
" So right after I'm aware of what's going on. I mean, certainly there's got to be an element of shock. I'm not dealing the injuries I had sustained, but I was aware enough to desperately check for a pulse on my wife's wrist and there was none. And I could see that she had an injury on her elbow that wasn't bleeding and so it just started ‑‑ things started to add up that she was gone. I just ‑‑ that no amount of CPR or emergency assistance would bring her back," Williams said of the accident.
"I look back and I see my son Benjamin just kind of leaning against the door and he looked so very peaceful as if he was asleep and I could see a huge gash on his head that once again wasn't bleeding and if you've cut your head at all, you know that those things bleed a lot and so just once again this thought that he too was absolutely gone. And then as I looked to see my daughter, she's actually leaning forward with her hair draped over her eyes, her face and, you know, I couldn't see any physical injury. But once again I just had this thought that she too was gone. And that was the extent of it."
"How did you just tell me that story? My gosh, I'm sitting here as a dad and Jeffy's doing the same thing. How did you just tell me that story?" Glenn asked after hearing him describe it with such calm.
"I have a ‑‑ I have a core belief that they live on. I mean, this is a moment where I'm dealing with, you know, looking at their bodies that they've left here, but in a sense they've ‑‑ they're entering a place that I would ‑‑ I call Paradise, right, just a place of peace. And as I've reflected on that moment so many times and the peace that came when I decided in that car to let it go, it has just, it has created this foundation in my life that I can ‑‑ that I can talk about it and reflect on it and remember my wife and my kids in a way that reinforces that they're not gone, that they live on," Williams said.
White, who was seventeen at the time, described what he experienced to Glenn: "In high school, Skyline High School and I was just a normal kid who liked to rebel, and I was at an acquaintance's house. I had some alcohol. I had some friends I was going to meet up with and they called me, let them ‑‑ let me know that they were going to be at a Baskin Robbins. So I went there in hopes to find them. They weren't there. So I called them and asked where they were. They were somewhere else. So they said come over and meet us. And I just felt tipsy at the time, but the last thing I remember is pulling out of the Baskin Robbins, and the next thing I know I'm walking away from my overturned vehicle and I'm looking back and trying to figure out what happened. All I know is something terrible happened."
Again, Glenn could not believe that this story was being told with such calm and how, shockingly, the two had a close relationship.
Williams said their relationship was fantastic, and that together they are spreading a message of redemption with their book "Let It Go: A True Story of Tragedy and Forgiveness".
I see the same thing in Cameron and so being with him, it's ‑‑ there's a wonderful expectation for the future. It's almost like I get to kind of watch him fulfill I think the expectation that the judge saw as well, is that he has an incredibly bright future, he's an incredibly talented individual and I think that's really this message of redemption and had I not let that go, I would have missed out on this opportunity to do that.
