A Mother's Forgiveness: Mary Johnson and Oshea Israel

In 1993, Mary Johnson's only son, Laramiun Byrd, was shot and killed at a party. He was just 20 years old. Oshea Israel, the 16-year-old who pulled the trigger, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. For years, Mary lived with a hatred so consuming she could barely breathe.

But something shifted. Twelve years into Oshea's sentence, Mary asked to meet him. She needed to see the face of the man who had taken her son.

"I wanted to know if there was a human being behind the monster I had created in my mind."

The meeting changed everything. Mary saw not a monster, but a broken young man carrying the weight of what he had done. In that moment, something miraculous happened — she felt her hatred begin to dissolve.

The Unthinkable Choice

"I didn't forgive him for his sake," Mary explains. "I forgave him for mine. The hatred was killing me. It was eating me alive."

When Oshea was released from prison in 2010, Mary did something that shocked everyone: she advocated for him to move into the apartment next door to hers. Today, they are neighbors. More than that, they are family.

Healing Together

Mary and Oshea now travel the country together, sharing their story through the organization Mary founded, From Death to Life. They speak at prisons, schools, and churches about the transformative power of forgiveness.

"Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die," Mary often says. "Forgiveness freed me."

Oshea, who now works as a community advocate, says Mary's forgiveness saved his life twice — once physically, by giving him hope to survive prison, and once spiritually, by showing him that redemption is possible.

"She's like my second mother," Oshea says, his voice breaking. "She gave me what I didn't deserve: another chance at life."

Their story challenges everything we think we know about justice, revenge, and healing. It asks us: what if the path to our own freedom lies in releasing those who hurt us most?

This is the deepest form of harmony.