Monty Williams Calls For Forgiveness In Powerful Speech At Wife’s Memorial Service

Much of the NBA travelled to Oklahoma City Thursday to attend the memorial service of Ingrid Williams—the wife of Thunder assistant Monty Williams— who died last week in a car crash. At what was billed as a “Celebration of Life for Ingrid Williams,” Monty gave a powerful eulogy for his wife, exhorting to those in the audience that, “as hard as this is for me and my family, and for you, this will work out.”

Williams, a deeply committed Christian, explained why he felt that way:

God will work this out. My wife is in heaven. God loves us. God is love. And when we walk away from this place today, let’s celebrate. Because my wife is where we all need to be. And I’m envious of that. But I got five crumb-snatchers I’ve got to deal with. I love you guys for taking time out of your day to celebrate my wife. We didn’t lose her. When you lose something you can’t find it. I know exactly where my wife is. I’ll miss holding her hand. I’ll miss talking with my wife.

In the most moving part of his speech, Williams asked the audience to pray for the family of Susannah Donaldson, the driver who hit Ingrid while speeding 92 MPH in a 45 zone, and who also died.

Everybody is praying for me and my family, and that is right, but let us not forget that there were two people in this situation, and that family needs prayer as well. And we have no ill will toward that family. In my house, we have a sign that says ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the lord.’ We cannot serve the lord if we don’t have a heart of forgiveness.

That family didn’t wake up wanting to hurt my wife. Life is hard. Life is very hard. And that was tough. But we hold no ill will towards the Donaldson family. And we, as a group, brothers united in unity, should be praying for that family, because they grieve as well.

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