If there’s one thing Rob Smyth wants Elmira residents to remember, it’s this — Ruth Usick’s amazing demonstration of grace and forgiveness at her son-in-law’s murder trial.
Usick asked for special permission to speak to Ken at the trial, after hearing sickening testimony of how he murdered her daughter — and attempted to make it look like suicide.
“She walked up, and spoke quite quietly,” said Smyth, a friend of the family who was there for the trial.
She said three simple words: “We forgive you.”
The words had a visible effect on Ferguson, causing him to break down with horrible, wrenching sobs that filled the courtroom.
And, as he cried, Usick rubbed his back, comforting the man who had killed her only child.
The entire courtoom was blown away by this show of forgiveness, something that is typical of Usick’s character, said Smyth.
“It was like there was nobody there to support Ken, and Ruth took that place. We saw a moment of divinity.”