Forgiving the Men Who Murdered My Father

In this next episode, we hear from Jennifer Szenay, a lake enthusiast from Michigan, an intern at Prison Radio, and an advocate for families who have been impacted by mass incarceration. 

Jennifer talks about growing up and living a double life where she tried to push all of her trauma to the side and live in denial of the pain she was experiencing. She reflects on what it was like to slow down and finally be able to look inwardly so that she could begin her healing process. Jennifer shares how she lost her father to an execution-style murder at 7 years old, her mother to a sentence of life without the possibility of parole at 8, and living in a very abusive foster care situation. Jennifer also talks about fighting for emancipation at age 15 and having a child at 18 years old. 

Despite all of these experiences, Jennifer dives deep into one part of her healing process which involved her engaging with the two young men who were responsible for her father’s murder. She talks about growing up with a lot of hate for these two young men but later seeing her own son grow up and realizing that they, too, had families who were collateral damage in the choices they had made. And understanding that they were also someone’s grandson, brother, or cousin. Jennifer talks about the importance of restorative justice and how engaging in this kind of work allowed her to look past her own pain and realize that she was not alone. 

Jennifer is currently in the process of writing her own memoir and she is also collecting the stories of men who have served 20-30 years in prison in an effort to pass down some of their words of advice to young men currently in the community.

Connect with Jennifer and support her journey and work via:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coconutavocados/ 

Gmail: szenayj@gmail.com

Linktree: https://www.linktr.ee/thejennieproject