If you are in this thread, I assume you know Storycorps, a non-profit formed to record individual stories for archiving. One gets played most Fridays on NPR. Some folks joke that they never miss it for their weekly Good Cry ;).
In this one, a woman whose son was murdered at 16 sat down and spoke with his murderer, a man named O’Shea Israel. As they spoke, it was clear they had reached a peace starting when she saw him in prison a few years after the murder. It was clear that her forgiveness affected him, making him want to be a better man.
It was touching and powerful. At the end, he shared how he lived next door to her, and welcomed her checking up on him. Again, that level of wanting to be a better man was touching.
Then, in the last exchange, she said she had missed so many events of her son’s, and she hoped she might see them with O’Shea - graduating college; getting married. He told her he loved her. She replied “I love you, too, Son.” End.
I am still processing this. To me, that last exchange took a nice empathy ride and spun it into a tree. Forgiveness, and even love in the face of such effort to redeem himself, yes. Calling him Son squicked me right out.
Seems a little crazy, but who am I to tell people how they ought to behave when their children are murdered?
If this were a fictional movie plot, I’d definitely think the writers had gone too far.
Whatever helps these people get through the rest of their lives in good spirits is fine though, I guess.
It’s clearly some transference… but is it harming anyone? Doesn’t look like it. If a caring and supportive mother figure keeps him straight and having a young man she can treat like a son makes her grief eased… then meh, free to be you and me.
I did hear that one. Sometimes when Storycorps comes on, I turn the radio off, because the story is almost certain to be so poignant it will make me cry. Sometimes I’m not in the mood to cry.
This one struck me at the time as pure “What would Jesus do?” with some transference/displacement mixed in. Clearly, having this relationship with this man made her son’s death easier to bear. Whatever gets you through the night, ya know. I’m not a parent and I’ve never been near anything like a violent crime, so I can’t pretend to understand what either of these people went through.