Select Historical Memoirs of the Religious Society of Friends, Commonly Called Quakers: Being a Succinct Account of Their Character and Course During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (1881)

Mark and I were beginning a new garden that day near our back patio when, suddenly, our happy world was turned into chaos. We received the phone call no parent wants to receive. Someone had been shot at a local fast-food restaurant. Our precious only daughter Janah was working in that very restaurant, and when we heard this news, we somehow knew in our hearts that she was the one who had been shot. In this horrific way, what had been a perfectly beautiful day, April 4, 2007, turned into the worst day of our lives. Not only had Janah been shot; she had been brutally stabbed again and again in various places, and then had her throat slit. Eventually, when no one came to her aid, she bled to death. And, to make matters worse, this brutal murder was carried out by none other than the person to whom she had entrusted her life and love ‘till death us do part.’ How could we survive such a terrible blow? Being forgiving of others had never been an issue with me, but this? Ever since Janah’s murder I have felt compelled to write about our experience because so many have gone through similar horrors and are still trapped in a web of unforgiveness and bitterness. It is my fervent prayer that, through the story of our journey, you, too, can experience the Sufficient Grace needed to forgive. - Nancy A. Stern