The mother of the shooter who killed 10 girls and himself at an Amish school in 2006 said God has “healed” her home.
Terri Roberts told Christian Today that she heard about the 2006
shooting from her husband and a radio report named the shooter as “Roy,”
not the name of her son.
Her husband then told her that the shooter was her son, Charlie.
“Wailing, I fell to the ground in a fetal position. Someone came from
the house and asked me to be quiet, as my youngest grandson was napping.
I was incredibly thirsty, even after drinking countless glasses of
water. I felt as though everything inside of me would be expelled. Yet
within that first day, God also provided two opportunities for healing
at our home.”
Roberts said she and her husband weren’t perfect parents but they also
learned that they could not blame themselves for Charlie’s actions.
“Other than wishing that I'd encouraged Charlie to be more expressive,
there were no particular areas that felt lacking,” she said.
The Nickel Mines Amish community responded to the shooting with
forgiveness, Roberts said. They attended Charlie’s funeral and reached
out to Terri and her husband to help them.
“Rosanna, the most injured of the children at age six, is now 15 and
still tube-fed, in a wheelchair. She recently came to visit me in my
sunroom instead of me visiting her as I have done weekly for the past
eight years. Our bond of friendship shows how healing can and should
work,” she said
Roberts now speaks about the shooting and forgiveness. She also wrote a book, Forgiven: The Amish School Shooting, A Mother’s Love and a Story of Remarkable Grace.
“God's goodness is in the eye of the beholder. Bitterness and anger are
worse than any cancer, eating away at our souls. Even in hardship,
praising God for His provision changes our perspective, granting grace
for the ‘next step.’”
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