This is our friend Freya at our wedding reception! I met her at the intersection of Berry Rd and Franklin Pike on April 27, 2016. She was the driver who paralyzed me on my bicycle.
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I woke up in the hospital not knowing what had happened. When I was told that someone had ran a red light and hit me, but was very shaken up and distraught, I wanted to reach out, to say that I was surrounded by family and that I was going to be OK. That I forgave her.
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I didn't hear from her for 5 months, until one day I received a long, poetic text message about how devastated she was...
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It was honestly really good closure to hear from her. To know it was a real person that cared and was deeply troubled by what had happened.
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I sent her a video of me walking in a harness... Said it would be OK. A few months later I was back in Nashville in audio school, and we coordinated a time to meet in person.
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It was like a movie. The name of the coffee shop was, ironically, The Red Bicycle. I walked in, she expected me to roll in. I said "bring it in", and we embraced for a solid 30 seconds. It was one of the weightiest moments of my life... The significance of that act.
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I had every right to sentence her to jail time. To make her pay for her mistakes. She deserved it. And she knew it. She had cried every day.
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I chose light. I chose life. And instead of a jail cell, she now has freedom from drug addiction, she's reconnected with her mother, and has turned to God. All I did was extend forgiveness, and look at the result!
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Give someone something they don't deserve today, you just might change their life.
Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many,
are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little
is forgiven, the same loveth little.
Luke 7:47
Driver Who Paralyzed David
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