In October 2006 a milk truck driver named Charles Roberts walked into a one-room Amish schoolhouse at Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, shot ten young girls, killing five, and then took his own life. What happened next stunned the country. Some of the grieving Amish families offered forgiveness almost right away, and several of them stood at the killer’s burial and hugged his widow and family. Later the Amish community even gave money to help the widow and her three children. NPR noted that forgiving didn’t mean the pain was gone; they were still grieving a year later, but they refused to let bitterness have the last word.
