Encounters --- by Ray Hart

A Special Valentine's Day

He was in prison. A dismal grey walled prison on the banks of the Ohio River. Alone and lonely he wrote a short note to an old friend from grade school. Her name was Nancy - his name was John. They hadn't seen each other since grade school over thirty years ago. His wife had divorced him after eight years of fighting the system to prove that he was wrongly convicted for the life sentence he was serving. Nancy was married to an abusive husband and living in Florida. Her brother had sent John her address purely on a whim. So he sent her a Valentine's Day card. Nothing really romantic. Simply a friendly note to say hello. She answered him with a card that said thanks. From there they corresponded periodically to the point where it became a daily escape for each of them to open their hearts. The loneliness he felt was shared by her. She was in a marriage with teenaged children - a boy and a girl - and the reason why she stayed in the abusive relationship for so long.

There came a time in the short lived writing where they wanted to be together as much as possible. She visited her parents in Pittsburgh so that she could meet him at the prison.

She sat across from him at the table in the visiting room and they both cried with the joy they immediately felt. They kissed and hugged at the end of the visit and she never went back to Florida. Her two children soon followed and they moved into their grandparents’ house with Nancy.

John had been fighting his case for the dozen years he had been in prison. He also had been in the forefront of the changes that were going on in the prisons at the time. Changes that put "rehabilitation" before "warehousing." As a result he had been able to be among the first to graduate from college in prisons in the United States. He was even permitted to become a trustee to the point where he was assigned to work in the greenhouse outside of the prison. His first order of business on his first day outside "the Wall" was to hug a tree.

He also escorted a group of judges who were touring the prison. One of the judges was a former prosecutor, Samuel Strauss, who had been the impetus behind John's being sentenced to life. When he saw who his escort was Judge Strauss wanted to get out of the tour, but he was locked in with dozens of convicts that he had put there. During the tour John put Judge Strauss into a cell and shut the door on him and said for him to imagine what it would be like to spend the rest of his life in the tiny five by eight foot dungeon. The panic in the eyes of the judge subsided when John opened the door and let him out.

When Judge Strauss returned to his Courtroom he called a news conference and told the media about the incident. He also made it a point to order John to court to face the consequences. What he did, in fact, was have John stand before him to say that he was sorry and that John deserved to be free. As a result, Judge Strauss stated that he would do anything to rectify the situation and he became John's biggest supporter in a pardon hearing. The pardon was granted and John was allowed to be eventually released. He was given a furlough on February 14, 1972. He and Nancy stood before Judge Strauss on that particular Valentine's Day. Judge Strauss made an eloquent speech about all of the hardships John and Nancy had gone through over the years and how pleased he was to be able to have them before him on that particular day. He smiled and blessed them - and he pronounced them husband and wife.

The love that came through a hard core prosecutor changed many lives on that Valentine's Day. The life that was changed most wasn't John's, or Nancy's, or their friends and families. The life that was changed most was a stern, "hanging judge" who became a smiling cupid who spread love beyond the courtroom. Judge Samuel Strauss showed the world that love is the greatest healer of all.

--- © by Ray Hart

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