{"id":68292,"date":"2015-07-28T15:15:39","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T19:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=68292"},"modified":"2015-07-28T19:12:33","modified_gmt":"2015-07-28T23:12:33","slug":"mother-murder-victim-pens-letter-daughters-killer-reveals-refusal-abort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mother-murder-victim-pens-letter-daughters-killer-reveals-refusal-abort\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother of murder victim pens letter to daughter&#8217;s killer, reveals her refusal to abort"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>When tragedy strikes, we often lash out at whomever we can, especially if there is someone to blame. But one mother, a retired New Orleans police officer, has chosen to forgive the man who murdered her daughter, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lifenews.com\/2015\/07\/26\/moms-heartbreaking-letter-to-daughters-killer-because-i-didnt-abort-her-i-experienced-true-love\/\">wrote a\u00a0letter<\/a>\u00a0telling him so.<\/p>\n<p>20-year-old Milan Arriola wasn\u2019t 20-year-old Will Reed\u2019s intended victim. She was just someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he shot her to death as she drove her car. Milan\u2019s mother, Imani Ruffins, reached out to Reed on Facebook, detailing how lucky she was to have had her daughter for 20 years and the sympathy she feels for\u00a0Reed that he never knew such love.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>She wrote:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I\u2019m sharing this today, because TODAY was a good day.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">I want you to know that in spite of you changing my life forever, I don\u2019t hate you. I feel sorry for you. Sorry that you\u2019ve never experienced the love that Milan experienced, not only from her family and friends, but coworkers, classmates and random strangers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">An unconditional, heart pounding, take your breath away type of love. I\u2019m certain you haven\u2019t experienced this because you had no regard or appreciation for life.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Ruffins goes on to talk about her pregnancy and how she had prayed for a girl who was \u201chumble, happy, healthy\u201d and who would have her father\u2019s (a fire chief) spirit and smarts. She wrote about how God answered those prayers despite doctors urging her to abort.<\/p>\n<p>She reveals in the letter that while she was pregnant she became ill with chickenpox. According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/pregnancy\/infections-chickenpox.html\">CDC<\/a>, pregnant women who contract chickenpox are at risk for serious complications including pneumonia which results in death for 40% of pregnant women. In addition, there is a slight risk that the baby could be born with congenital varicella syndrome which includes scarring of the skin and problems with the arms, legs, brain, and eyes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s kind of funny,\u201d Ruffins wrote, \u201cbecause when I was a few months pregnant I contracted chicken pox, the Dr. told me my unborn child was gonna be retarded, blind and probably deaf and I should probably have an abortion, but I said no. No because I knew God heard my prayers. My faith out weighed everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ruffins continues to tell Reed how every single day for Arriola\u2019s entire life she told her that she loved her. She thanks God for those 20 years with her daughter and tells Reed that even he can\u2019t take that time away from her or anyone else who loved Arriola. Then she tells Reed that she will pray for him.<\/p>\n<p>With this letter and her undeniable ability to show love and kindness to everyone, Ruffins shows us what it truly means to be pro-life. It means forgiving even the worst acts. It means loving people even when they are at their worst. And it means seeing the value in all human life, no matter what.<\/p>\n<p>(Click image below for video.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kplctv.com\/clip\/11657750\/police-milan-arriola-not-intended-target-her-mother-pens-emotional-letter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-68357\" src=\"https:\/\/www.liveactionnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-28-at-1.36.46-PM.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2015-07-28 at 1.36.46 PM\" width=\"624\" height=\"382\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-28-at-1.36.46-PM.png 624w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Screen-Shot-2015-07-28-at-1.36.46-PM-300x184.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 624px) 100vw, 624px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When tragedy strikes, we often lash out at whomever we can, especially if there is someone to blame. But one mother, a retired New Orleans police officer, has chosen to forgive the man who murdered her daughter, and wrote a\u00a0letter\u00a0telling him so. 20-year-old Milan Arriola wasn\u2019t 20-year-old Will Reed\u2019s intended victim. She was just someone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":68372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[19,4421,4411],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mother of murder victim pens letter to daughter&#039;s killer, reveals her refusal to abort - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In her letter, Imani Ruffins reveals that while pregnant with Milan, she contracted chicken pox but refused to abort, saying &quot;God heard my prayers.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mother-murder-victim-pens-letter-daughters-killer-reveals-refusal-abort\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mother of murder victim pens letter to daughter&#039;s killer, reveals her refusal to abort - 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