Of course she was angry and confused at first, but Immaculée reached a major turning point as she grappled with God. She came to a simple and profound realization: “The killers were like children … Despite their atrocities, they were children of God, and I could forgive a child, although it would not be easy … especially when that child was trying to kill me.” (94)
After struggling with the language of God’s love in the Bible, she began to struggle with another language. This, too, was a sign from God, a flash of pure understanding of her destiny. She knew that she would need to be able to speak English someday, so she began to teach herself with two books from the pastor’s library and a French-English dictionary:
“Three weeks after I started this endeavor, I’d already read the two books that the pastor had given me from cover to cover. I was ready to move on to the next level: to teach myself to write in English. I borrowed a pen and paper from the pastor and began composing a letter. I wrote to a man who didn’t exist yet, but who was someone I believed in with all my heart—our rescuer.” (117)
Would I have been able to do what she did? That might be the question you end the book with—or the criticism you poke yourself with: I would never have been that good. I would have grabbed a machete and struck back at the people who killed my family. And why wouldn’t you feel that? But maybe just knowing that Immaculée didn’t is enough. Immaculée writes:
“ … [A] woman in Atlanta … approached me in tears at the end of a talk I gave. She told me that her parents had been killed in the Nazi Holocaust when she was a baby: ‘My heart has been full of anger my entire life … But hearing your story about what you lived through and were able to forgive has inspired me.’”
Immaculée’s healing didn’t start after she was rescued—it began in the dark before there were rescuers. Before there was a publishing contract or French troops. Healing began in the height of sickness. That’s how you salvage the cells of love.
Today, Immaculée is happily married with children and living in the U.S. She has devoted her life to writing, lecturing and working with humanitarian organizations that help women and children of war torn regions. She has started the Left To Tell Charitable Fund.
You can buy this extraordinary book on her website, lefttotell.com, or on amazon.com.
One last note: I first learned about Immaculée Ilibagiza while watching Dr. Wayne W. Dyer speak on PBS. The famed inspirational speaker introduced Immaculée as someone who had deeply inspired him. I sat in my living room, riveted, as she got up on stage to thundering applause. They are great friends, and he penned the book’s foreword.
Photo courtesy of Tango Diva
