Sunday Stories to Share...

except that I really heard this on a Monday.  (Since our church is so late, I don't get my Sunday visits in very often.  I come home from nursery exhausted, so I relax, and then it's too dark/late to go visiting!)

But, here's the story I heard on Monday.

Bette -in her 60's - comes from a family of 11 children.  Four have died.

When her oldest brother was 18 years old, he belonged to a gun club in high school....the students were not allowed to have the bullets and the teacher kept them....(this was many years ago, so things are definitely different now!)

At any rate, a couple of the boys had a gun with them at the lunch break.  As a joke, one pointed the rifle towards Van Allen (Bette's brother), and said jokingly, "I'm going to shoot you."

And, he shot.

Van Allen put his hand to the side of his neck, and said, "You got me!"  He fell forward on his face.

All the people gathered thought it was a joke and went over and told him to get up.  When he didn't get up, and they rolled him over, a pool of blood was streaming from his neck.

He died on the way to the hospital.

The day after the shooting, the sheriff came to the home of the young dead student.  The Sheriff said, "I'm going to arrest the boy who shot your son.  I'm putting him in jail for murder."

Bette's mother said, "Oh, no, you are NOT! That was an accident...he didn't mean to hurt my son.  You can't put him in jail for an accident."

The sherif replied, "But he committed murder!"

And, Bette's mother said, "He did not commit murder...what happened was an accident - pure and simple.  Let him be."

What an inspiring great story.  Today, we live in such a litigious society that the parents would have sued the boy, the school, the sheriff's department, the bus driver, the school nurse, the gun company, the dry cleaners, and the mayor.

But, Bette's mom - in the midst of her own terrible sorrow and grief - said, "It was an accident.  Let him be."

Bette concluded the story by telling me that her mother had a big heart; she genuinely cared about people.

And, I can see that is true!