Of all the stories I've done over the years, one of the most unforgettable was the one told to me last week by Marietta Jaeger.

Back in 1973, when Marietta and her family planned a monthlong camping trip through Montana, they were told the trip would be one they would never forget.That proved to be true for the most horrific of reasons.When she kissed her five children good night, it was the last time she would ever hug Susie, her 7-old-daughter."Four of the kids were sleeping side by side in a tent. Susie was the hardest for me to reach because she was at the end. My lips only skinned her cheek when I reached over to kiss her."But Susie said, 'Momma, no,' because she didn't want to settle for a partial kiss," Marietta recalls."She reached over, gave me a big hug and said, 'I love you, Momma.' It was her last gift to me."When Susie's older sister woke up in the middle of the night, she noticed Susie wasn't there and ran to tell her parents."The tent was still zipped up so we knew she didn't just wander off. We saw a hole had been cut through the tent on Susie's side," says Marietta."The two little lambs she slept with were found outside. I knew in my mind that Susie was taken but I didn't want to accept it. I thought things like that only happen in the movies."One agonizing year passed without any word on what happened to Susie.Exactly one year to the minute from the time of the kidnapping, Marietta received a middle-of-the-night call from the kidnapper himself."He said, 'I have her.' He said he had kept her locked in a broom closet for two weeks and was thinking about exchanging her for a ransom."He was calling to taunt me, just to torture me more. But he wasn't counting on one thing - I was in a different spiritual place and was not the same person I was when Susie was taken."He expected me to go to pieces. Instead, after an intense year of prayer and struggle, I had been given the gift of the peace that surpasses all understanding."I stayed calm, keeping him on the phone for 1½ hours by asking him questions. Then I startled him by saying I was praying for him."I asked him what I could do for him," she says.It was that unexpected compassion that did the kidnapper in."He broke down and sobbed and sobbed. He let his guard down and told me things that helped the FBI."Through that phone call, the FBI eventually learned the killer was a 26-year-old single man who baby sat for small children and was well thought of in his hometown.When they searched a field around his home, the FBI found a fire pit with a lot of bones in it, including the backbone of a little girl.The Jaeger family learned their daughter was killed two weeks after she was taken."During the two weeks he kept her alive, my little girl suffered every kind of horror," Marietta says.Police found cutup body parts in his freezer.The family had to be told the grisly news: After the killer was finished with Susie, he cut up her body and cannibalized her."At least we knew she wasn't suffering anymore," Marietta says.From the time her daughter was kidnapped, Marietta was vehement about what she wanted to do to the kidnapper."I wanted to kill him. I felt like I could tear him apart with my own hands with a smile on my face," she said."Even before I knew she was dead I wanted to kill him for causing Susie anguish."Any parent can understand Marietta's grief and her rage toward the kidnapper.What may be harder to understand is her change of heart.She forgave him.When the kidnapper admitted he cut Susie's body into pieces then put her head in the bottom of an outhouse hole, she still forgave him.When she learned he had cut up her child's body then cannibalized her, she forgave him.When she learned he was a serial killer who had taken the lives of other children, she forgave him."I knew he was sick and deserved to be in prison for the rest of his life so he wouldn't harm another child. But I told the FBI I wasn't asking for the death penalty."Killing him wouldn't bring Susie back. All life is sacred. Taking another life in the name of my innocent child wouldn't honor her the way she deserves to be."She says her heart changed after a year of prayer and listening to what the Holy Spirit was telling her."When we pray the Our Father, we ask to be forgiven as we forgive others. It's what we are called to do."Forgiveness is hard. It takes work. Finally, I gave God permission to change my heart. My family and I had finally reached that state of grace to forgive."But Marietta's husband couldn't forgive the killer. "He was eaten up with murderous feelings that I think led to his physical decline and death," she says."Hatred isn't healthy. It destroys people."Instead of making suffering her reality, Marietta says she celebrates Susie's life by helping others who are finding it hard to forgive.She stresses that losing her daughter in such a horrific way didn't strip her life of meaning. Instead, it gave her a new purpose - to take on the mission of helping others heal their pain.As a motivational speaker she travels all over the world sharing her story."I have had so many people tell me they were having a hard time forgiving the hurts they suffered. But when they heard my story, they said it gave them hope they, too, might find the way to forgiveness.Right after her daughter's death she wrote a book, "The Lost Child" that is still available on Amazon.Many believe the international best-seller, "The Shack" was based on Marietta's story of forgiveness.Much of her time now is spent giving motivational talks and spiritual retreats."I know I've reached thousands all over the world. I'm a country bumpkin with a high school education but I have a message," she says."When we take the ugliness out of our heart and learn to forgive, God will get us where we need to be."Contact Pattie Mihalik at

newsgirl@comcast.net.