HENRY COUNTY, Va. – A local story worthy of a nationwide audience.
As we’ve reported, the movie My Brothers’ Crossing is now playing in theaters nationwide.
What Hollywood has edited down to a minute-long synopsis, J.T. Clark, his wife, Terri Lee, and their family have lived out over the past five years.
“At its core, it’s a story about forgiveness, reconciliation, obedience, love and mercy,” J.T. said.
It began on August 21, 2015, when J.T.’s brother and sister-in-law, Bobby and Pam Clark, were killed in a head-on crash in Henry County.
“My brother and his wife were thrown to the asphalt in front of the truck and the truck ran them over, crushing and killing them,” said J.T.
The driver of that truck, C.J. Martin, was going the wrong way in a detour.
J.T. said a phone call made to Martin, the man at fault, hours after Bobby and Pam were killed, changed their family forever.
“My brother’s daughter was calling to tell this man that she didn’t know, had never laid eyes on, hadn’t seen that she loved him and that she forgave him. Lindsey, this phone call didn’t take place months later, weeks later, I’m talking about within hours of her losing both parents, she’s making that phone call,” J.T. said.
She was the first Clark family member to forgive Martin for killing her parents, but that’s just the beginning.
Two months later, J.T. got a strong feeling that he needed to be at Martin’s court appearance in Henry County.
“In my mind, I was going just so I could say I was in the courtroom for my brother and his wife,” J.T. said.
What happened next, he’s since written in a book and now you can watch on the big screen.
On his drive to the courthouse, he felt something tell him to pay for Martin’s court fine.
It was a move that shocked everyone in the courtroom when the trooper told the judge, “This is J.T. Clark, he’s the brother and brother-in-law of the two that were killed and he intends to pay any fine you impose in this case,” J.T. recalled.
An incredible act of forgiveness.
“When C.J. Martin heard that, he cried out in the courtroom, ‘Oh my Jesus,’ and he started bawling. Months later, he shared with me that when he walked in the courtroom that day, he saw the trooper sitting there and talking to me and when the trooper called for me to come forward, he said, ‘I just knew you were there to be a witness against me. When I heard what you were there to do I couldn’t contain it,’” J.T. said.
In the midst of tragedy, these two men and their whole families find unity and healing.
Martin ended up only facing improper driving charges and the judge reduced his fine that J.T. paid.
My Brothers’ Crossing is playing in Roanoke, West Lake, New River Valley and Lynchburg theaters.