That night, she returned home after church with Stephen, 12, and his brother Brian, 8, in tow. 17 of that year, she had found her man - a mechanic with a rap sheet. The middle-class mother would later admit that she spent months driving around crime-ridden sections of Memphis, looking for someone willing to harm Ron Owens. In early 1985, Gaile Owens set in motion her husband’s murder. And when he finally found a way to forgive his mother, Stephen also decided to fight for her freedom. But slowly, he started down a different path. As a man, he mourned his absence: at his basketball games, his wedding, the birth of his children.įor years Stephen wanted nothing to do with the woman who had caused all of this pain and grief. The decision to forgive, Stephen says, “opened a life for me that I would have never had.”Īs a boy, Stephen adored his father. For Stephen, now 40 years old, it took much of his adult life to get to this point. He adds that you can’t absolve someone and then keep rehashing the things they have done to hurt you. About Stephen’s burden of resentment and anger and, finally, his decision to move past it all. About the killing of Stephen’s father and Gaile’s years on death row for her role in the crime. On this day, she and Stephen sit side by side in a conference room, one glancing at the other as they answer a reporter’s questions about their tangled past. They often meet for lunch at the nonprofit where Gaile Owens works. She stands on tiptoes to hug him and whispers: “I love you.” He smiles and hugs her back. NASHVILLE - Nearly three decades after the murder that tore them apart, the mother and son talk easily now.
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