Melanie Washington put her arms around the young man who killed her son and hugged him. She said, ‘It’s more important to love and forgive than to hold on to the pain and the hurt.  I found myself putting my arm around him. I didn’t feel a murderer that killed my son. I felt my son.’ Today Melanie Washington lives in Long Beach, California and is helping troubled youth make it out of a destructive culture. She herself came out of a childhood that she said was ‘pure hell’ To read her story click more.