Justin Barclay talks previously closed area restaurants that should be brought back and chats with The Empowered Mom's Maria Luce on kids dealing with the "Back-To-School Blues." Also, Justin reads a heartfelt listener letter regarding the tragic crash in Ionia County.
Links
- Restaurant Week Grand Rapids starts Wednesday (Today)
- Experience Grand Rapids - Restaurant Week
- Dealing with the back-to-school blues?
- How to beat the back-to-school blues
- Maria Luce - The Empowered Mom
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Gail from Fremont's letter to Justin on Anne Nunez:
Dear Mr. Barclay,
This morning (8/8/17) I was listening to your program on WOOD Radio and heard you talk about, as well as play the video, from the court room where Anne Nunez "forgave" the driver (Lisa Thrush) of the vehicle that killed her husband in April in that awful accident with two trucks and a pick up. You mentioned that you didn't know if you could do that. I totally understand that, however, if you ever met and had a conversation with Anne, you would totally understand how she was able to and could do that.
I met Anne for the first time ever on July 6, 2017, when she came to Newaygo, Michigan to attend a book signing at our local Flying Bear Book Store where my daughter, Jennifer (Graeser) Dornbush was signing copies of her newly published book God Bless the Broken Road. As Anne was waiting her turn to get her book signed, I started a conversation with her. As it turns out, she actually went to college with my daughter Jennifer and her husband Ryan Dornbush at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois. She had lost touch with them over the years, until she started seeing posts that Jennifer had posted on Face book about her new book. Anne then started corresponding with Jennifer and told her all about her husband being killed in that accident. As Anne and I talked back and forth about the accident and what she has gone through since April, she told me that when she found Jennifer's book and started reading it, she actually began to heal from the grief she felt, just like the main character from the book (Amber) healed from her grief of loosing her husband in Afghanistan. Granted the book is fiction, but Anne's life is not. Anne received comfort through her faith, through the reading of the book because of how Jennifer was able to show in her writing that Amber needed to return to her faith to be healed, and that she needed to reach out to God first of all, but also to her friends. Anne told me that day that if it wasn't for her faith, if it wasn't for her friends, if it wasn't for the reading of that book, she wouldn't be where she was at that day in dealing with the grief of loosing her husband. She told Jennifer that she was "healing with Amber" as she read it.
What a testimony! Reading that story on the WOOD TV website yesterday about the court room scene, I could totally see how and why Anne could tell Lisa that she "forgave" her. God has give her that grace to be able to do
that. God has given His grace to forgive us, how can we not forgive others when they do wrong to us despite really bad things happening to us. I'm sure Lisa didn't start out that day planning to cause such a horrific accident--and who are we to say how God is or was going to use that incident to bring out His glory? I would say that God's glory shown all around, under, and over that court room on August 7, 2017, when Anne put her arms around Lisa and forgave her. The rest is up to God to take care of and Lisa will have to suffer those consequences for the rest of her life. But, in the meantime, she knows the forgiveness of Anne just like we know the forgiveness of God even though we suffer consequences for our mistakes and sin.
I just wanted you to know this, and I'm sure I would never have been able to put into words everything I wanted to say on a phone call to you at the station this morning (8/8/17).
Thank you for your time and reading my note to you. Just another quick suggestion--get the book and read it. I'm sure you will thoroughly enjoy it, and then watch for the movie that Jennifer wrote by the same name which is supposed to be released next year and was filmed right here in Western Michigan in 2016.
Sincerely,
Gail