Bethany Boynton lost her parents in a drunken driving accident on July 9, 2010. Her father was a pastor. The driver was Brett Whitaker, and he was drunk. Whitaker was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Attention was drawn to the case when the outgoing governor of Kentucky commuted Whitaker’s sentence in the fall of 2019.

What a lot of people didn’t know was that Bethany had started writing Brett in the summer of 2016. Tessa Duvall of the Louisville Courier-Journal has chronicled the touching story. Bethany believed that God was prompting her to reach out to the man whose foolish actions caused the death of her parents. She wrote a letter that was then delivered to Whitaker in prison.

He was deeply moved. He had rededicated himself to God in prison and was trying to forgive himself. According to the news story, Bethany wrote, “I just wanted to let you know that we are not spending our lives hating, resenting, or blaming you. We pray for you and your daughter. We’ve forgiven you. And so has God.”

Whitaker said this was an answer to a prayer he never thought would come true, and it changed his life. Bethany and Brett exchanged letters occasionally, and she did not resist Brett’s early release. In a letter she reiterated that she was okay with his early release but added, “But here is what I ask: Don’t fall back into old habits. Don’t repeat mistakes and bad decisions. Don’t let all this time and your hard work be wasted.”

It seems like two people have found freedom—one from guilt and one from resentment.