BDCWire
Jodie Ng

ChadMichael Morrisette was bullied in junior high. Recently, he received an unexpected apology.

“The entire football team bullied me,” Morrisette told Yahoo Parenting. “It wasn’t one guy, it was six or seven guys who would follow me in the hallways, harassing me, threatening my life.”

Morrisette, a 34-year-old visual designer and brand consultant in West Hollywood, told Yahoo Parenting that he left home when he was 15 and hasn’t dwelled on his childhood much until he saw a message from Louie Amundson, one of Morrisette’s bullies.

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Amundson had a conversation with his daughter and felt he needed to take responsibility for his actions.

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“I can’t take back the names I called him, and the threats I made toward him, but I can apologize,” Amundson said. “It doesn’t excuse my behavior as a child in any way, but as an adult it’s the best I can do to try to make it up to him.”

Morrisette’s response?

 

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“It unlocked something in me I didn’t realize I’d been holding onto,” Morrisette said. “I cried a little bit. It was so moving.”

But Amundson felt equally touched.

“I owed him that apology, he did not owe me his forgiveness,” he said. “The fact that he was able to forgive me showed that I may have been the bigger kid, but he is the bigger man.”

Morrisette reminds Yahoo Parenting that life does get better for those getting bullied, even if it may be difficult to realize at some points. He adds that those guilty of bullying can ask for forgiveness and that it’s never too late.

“There was something magical happening between dad and daughter, that she brought the apology out,” Morrisette said. “And that he was honest with her that, yes, he bullied — good for him. I’m quite proud of him.”