Nurturing Healing Love: A Mother's Journey of Hope and Forgiveness by Other Natasha Stoynoff
Scarlett Lewis's son Jesse was one of the 26 people who lost their lives in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Nurturing Healing Love is the incredible true story of her son's powerful message of love and hope before his tragic death.
Scarlett's story: Several weeks after Jesse's physical body died, I found his handwriting on our chalkboard in the kitchen. It is clearly his six-year-old printing, at just the height he could reach on the board. In carefully formed letters, and phonetically spelled, it reads, 'Norurting helin love' (Nurturing healing love). Jesse's babysitter, who was staying with us at the time, had been with him every afternoon and evening. Neither of us, including his brother, had seen him write this prophetic statement. When you read this, you know it was written by the spirit within Jesse, one that was determined to leave a message for his mom, his brother, his extended family, and the world that would comfort and inspire us.
JT found a personal message from Jesse left in his room, on a piece of paper folded several times in a small rectangle. It was printed with carefully formed letters and said simply, 'Have a lot of fun.' I have no doubt Jesse wanted JT (who tended to sometimes have a more serious attitude towards life) to remember to have fun. JT treasures this; he will always know that his little brother was caring about him and had left him this gift of love. I made a conscious decision to face this personal tragedy with love and forgiveness. The outpouring of love and support of our town, the nation and the world has shown that we can unite as one in love, and have victory in the face of evil. I believe this tragedy has changed many lives; many are now choosing a more loving path. We are all faced with a choice when we wake up in the morning-will we choose to live our lives in fear or faith? Then we step out into the world where good and evil do battle every day. It is the charge of each one of us to bring light and love into the world and we do this by every thought and interaction we have on a daily basis.