A mother hugs the man who killed her son and decided to forgive him. Her reason? It was because Jesus forgave her sins, too.
Melanie Washington
Melanie grew up in a cruel home environment. She was just eight years old when her stepfather molested her. During that time, she didn’t tell anyone. Not even her mother. But when she saw that her sister was a victim, too, she immediately told her.
Melanie’s mother kicked her stepfather out of the house. All was well, and both siblings were finally relieved to see the perpetrator out of the picture.
Until he came back the next day and killed her.
Melanie lived with guilt for most years of her life.
“I was the one who told my mother that he was doing this,” Melanie explains. “She put him out, and then he came back and killed her the day after Thanksgiving. I went through a life of never forgiving myself for that. I kept telling my mother, “I’m sorry.”
Even when Melanie became a wife, the guilt was still inside her. She couldn’t forgive herself! Two months after being married, her husband started beating her physically.
Again, she blamed herself for that.

Photo Courtesy: Melanie Washington Instagram | _matfa
Melanie decided to move out
The only time Melanie had the courage to leave her husband was because she had two sons. She wanted them to be safe from abuse.
“But I was pretty much messed up in my mind,” she says. “I was thinking about all the mistakes that I had made. It seemed like all I had done was messed up people’s lives.”
She turned to drugs that eventually got overdose. When she was ready to face death, she suddenly heard a voice.
“Melanie, Melanie, my name is Jesus,” he said. “If you follow me, I’ll show you the way.”
Not knowing how to respond, she said “okay.”
“The next morning, I was alive!”
After that day, she surrendered her heart to Jesus as her LORD and Savior and experienced being born again in the Spirit.
God changed her life and she quit drugs. He compelled her to forgive everyone including herself. She realized that the guilt she felt didn’t come from God and that it was just hurting herself.
Mother hugs the man who killed her son
But her desire to forgive was tested when she received the news that her son had been killed.
“I thought “no way!” I fought God, Jesus and anything else. ‘I’m the one that’s messed up people’s lives. Take me,’” Melanie said.
After bargaining with God, she finally surrendered and fell on her face.
“I asked God to forgive me,” she says. “How stupid could I be? Jesus died on the cross for me, and I really went through everything and spiritually I was changed. The Holy Spirit just changed me.”
So, Melanie decided to help people like the man who killed her son.
During the trial, she had the chance to speak to him. “When Donte came out, he was really tall, and he hugged me,” she said. “I found myself putting my arm around him.”
She added that she didn’t see Donte as a murderer. “I felt my son. I called him my son from that day on.”
She said to Donte: “You may have taken my son’s life, but God has given me yours.”
Today, Melanie ministers to people like Donte and brings Jesus to the hopeless and dark places.

Photo Courtesy: Melanie Washington Instagram | _matfa
Reference: God Reports