Forgiving is part of healing process

Kevin Bishell will spend just two and a half years in jail for causing the death of 18-year-old Olivia Renee Keightley-Trigg.

The sentence is appropriate according to the law but there would be few among us who think it adequate.

Bishell destroyed a life and yet he is free to resume his in just a couple of years. That cannot be fair. On the other hand whether the sentence was 2.5 years or 250 years, the net result for the Keightley-Trigg family is the same.

They still don’t have their daughter.

Nothing will change that. That Olivia’s mother Suzie has found it within herself to forgive Bishell is astounding and the strength and courage this has taken must be acknowledged.

In taking her daughter, Bishell completely changed Suzie’s life, forcing her into choosing how to live from an array of heartbreaking options no parent should ever be asked to confront.

In choosing to forgive Bishell she took some control back from him and ultimately made the only decision that makes sense in a senseless situation.

Were she not to forgive the man who robbed her of so much, her memory of her daughter would be infused with hate.

That’s not how any parent wants to recall the children they will always love.

Bishell’s sentence may help the Keightley-Trigg family feel there is at least some justice in the world but ultimately any sentence is only a bandaid. Forgiveness, however impossible it seems, is what will help them heal.

– Matt Rilkoff, Editor