When Fran walked into prison to experience Prison Fellowship’s Sycamore Tree Project (STP) for the first time, she was terrified, but was compelled by a forgiving spirit. This forgiveness has incredible power to get through to difficult people and soften hard hearts. The prisoners expected angry judgement from the crime victims who came to share their stories. But when they meet Fran, they got the opposite. In her seventies, she is the big-hearted, straight-talking mother figure that maybe they never had. When she looks them in the eye they suddenly drop their guard. Her compassion and kindness give her words extra weight, and her story brings tears and transformation. 

Fran had plenty of reasons to be bitter, and for many years she was. It was during one of her bouts of resentment toward God that she happened to read Psalm 68:5.

“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.”

It was a profound moment of insight. Through this spiritual awakening, Fran began to process the idea of forgiveness as something to be passed onto others. 

The person who murdered Fran’s husband has never been found, but as she interacted with inmates through STP, she had to get real about forgiving the person who has inflicted so much pain on her own family. She explains, “I do forgive the person who murdered my husband… I haven’t ever been able to meet them, but if I did, I hope I would have the grace to say it to their face. The first time I went into the prison to face other murderers, I was terrified. But they weren’t the monsters I expected them to be. To face the offenders in prison I found was really enlightening. They weren’t horrible people. They were young men who had had terrible childhoods.”