Eagle River, Alaska –“It’s been 19 years since Ive been back to my home town, when Chad Michael Morrisette left Eagle River for the lower 48 at 15, he also left behind bad memories from junior high.
Chad Michael Morrisette, bullied in junior high, “You’re gay, you’re gay, what does that mean It was a real conundrum in my brain, I didn’t understand why they were picking on me.”
He says he was a target of constant bullying, that he almost forgot about after all this time, until this past May.
“Checked my emails, checked my Facebook, I didn’t recognize the name, but I read it, the message and I was kind of like, what Wow.”
A message from a former classmate, Louie Amundson.
Louie Amundson, “I found him, fairly quickly, was getting ready to type a message and then I was like uh.. Then I started getting nervous, like what if he tells me now, I don’t forgive you.”
Amundson says while he can’t remember a lot about junior high, he does remember being a bully and when his daughter asked about the topic, he started thinking.
“She had some questions about bullies and said hey, were you ever bullied and I said sure, I think everybody has been at some point and she asked if Id ever bullied anyone and I kind of thought about it for a second because I wanted to give her an honest answer and said yeah I had.”
Then he sent Morisette this apology, it reads, in part, ‘if we lived in the same state I would apologize to your face. I don’t even know if you remember, but I do and I am sorry.”
Amundson says he didn’t expect a reply, but got one.
Morisette, “It brought up pain, it brought up memories of being bullied, it brought up that and then it also allowed me to shed it and let go of it and say I forgive you. You know that’s a very critical part in the healing process.” and what a difference time and forgiveness can make.
Morisette is back in his home town, to meet with Amundson face to face, it’s a story that in this short time, has now gone viral.
“Its really causing people to relate and it’s got heart and it’s got grace and it’s got forgiveness and things that we’re not inundated with in our society so how refreshing.”
Amundson, “When you right a wrong sometimes it can help other people do it too, it went bigger than just him and I.”
A story of bullying between two boys, that led to friendship between two men.
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