Posted on 08/05/2021 3:07:35 AM PDT by RandFan
The parents of a student killed in a car crash have shared how they forgave the man behind the wheel, taking him into their home and calling him son.
Elizabeth and Fernando Jimenez were devastated after their daughter Maria was killed in a car crash in March 2017 but felt obligated to help Nick Tay, the friend who had been driving, as he faced prosecution.
Despite being 'consumed with grief', Elizabeth couldn't help but feel for 25-year-old Nick, whose family lived in Singapore, leaving him facing the aftermath of his actions on his own.
The couple decided they would forgive him and the three of them would go on to form a remarkably close bond with each other as Nick faced prosecution, was sent to prison and then deported after serving his sentence.
In March 2017, Maria Jimenez had planned to go Korea to teach after finishing her linguistics degree at Brighton University.
But just days before her 24th birthday, she was killed in a crash after friend Nick Tay flipped the car while travelling at 110mph.
The pair had been for dinner with their church music group and Maria had asked Nick to drive her home because she had been drinking.
Nick, 25, was speeding down a dual-carriageway in south west London at more than double the limit when he veered across two lanes, hit the central reservation and flew off towards a verge.
Maria was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the Peugeot 206 when Tay, who escaped with minor injuries, crashed in the early hours of March 22.
The crash, which happened on the A3 near Tolworth, cost Maria her life in what police would later call 'an incident that was entirely preventable'.
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(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Stupid.
Wonderful couple who did something to make the world a better place, despite the pain and trauma of being innocent victims.
It is funny how frequently we say this, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us...,” and then fail to follow up when the rubber meets the road. This couple did what God requires, they forgave and benefitted from it.
I don’t know if I could forgive as they did. The young man was not evil or criminal, just young and stupid. Young men do a lot of stupid things on the way to attaining wisdom, if they survive the stupid things.
Kudos to the couple for forgiveness. God Bless.
He doesn’t live with the parents. He is living in Singapore and is married and has his own family now.
Elizabeth recalled Nick entering their living room and approaching Fernando, adding: ‘Nick hugged him and said, “please forgive me”. In tears they both collapsed to the ground, all the while Nick repeating his request over and over and Fernando saying, “I forgive you son”.’
1) We don’t know what we would do until it happens.
2) In this case, there appears to be repentance and forgiveness. It is completed.
3) In many stories, we see the parents “forgiving” a murderer in prison and there has been no repentance. In that case I don’t think it is forgiveness, it is something else. But for sure, it is not complete.
Methodists and Baptists never made deep inroads in UK.
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