Forgiveness

I saw this touching video

When deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive...
Forgiveness does not change the past. But it does enlarge the future

-Mary Karen Read

Who is Mary Karen Read?

Mary Karen Read is just one of the 32 people who were shot dead at two locations on the Virginia Tech university campus in 2007. At least 30 of them were killed by 23-year-old Cho Seung-hui.

Mary Karen Read, a 19-year-old freshman majoring in interdisciplinary studies, was best known for her smile. It even earned her an award.

"She actually won 'Best Smile' for the band superlatives during senior year," said Jessica Berrios, 19, a former classmate at Annandale High School in Virginia. "She always had a smile on her face, and she was always giggling, especially with her best friends. Even during times of stress, she always had a smile on her face."

Ms. Berrios said Ms. Read played clarinet and wanted to become an elementary school teacher. She also loved baking. "I loved it when she baked cookies because they were heavenly," Ms. Berrios said.

Amy Mathis, another former classmate, called Ms. Read "a warm and friendly person," who stood out in a class of about 500 students.

"She was always inclusive. She was a beautiful person that way," said Ms. Mathis, a freshman at the University of Richmond. "She never really meant to exclude anyone. She was always that girl you could talk to even if you hadn't talked to her in a while. That was one of her best traits and it separated her from a lot of people. She never really put up a wall."

Ms. Mathis said the news of Ms. Read's death shook everyone in her town.

"When it happened to her it seemed to happen to the whole Annandale community," she said. "She was, I think, one of the more pivotal people in our class, a strong representative of who we were."

A poem was posted at the top of a Facebook page created in her memory -- and of course, it revolved around her award-winning smile.

"Mary was a beautiful person/Her smile made the sun's beauty envious She was a great friend/a gorgeous angel/and she is in heaven/watching over us."


Sources:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6564075.stm

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/r/mary_karen_read/index.html