NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. (WJBF) — A North Augusta woman has written a book about her journey toward forgiveness after a major tragedy.

“After that happened, all of our lives changed,” Paige McLemore told NewsChannel 6’s weekend Good Morning Augusta anchor Shawn Cabbagestalk about the murder of her sister.

McLemore says that in 1988, her sister was working at Johannsen’s Sporting Goods and a felon came in with a gun and robbed the store and murdered her. “It was just a very, very, very difficult and tragic time of my life,” she recalled.

She wanted to know why something like this could happen to a loved one. “Why would God do this to me and why he would take my best friend and my sister away from me and do this to my parents?” she asked.

The hate for the suspect, she says, was apparent. “I was an angry girl and very unsettled for four years even after the trial and into my late twenties,” she revealed. “It didn’t go very well for me for about 15 to 20 years,” she added.

Her life started to change for the better after she says she got married and a higher power got involved. “I was leaning on the world for answers when all I needed to do was lean on the Lord,” McLemore said. “After getting into His word, He just pressed it upon me to forgive. Every morning I would wake up and forgive would be on my mind. So I just had to, and the Lord blessed my obedience,” she added.

The forgiveness wasn’t for the suspect but for herself. “It was about me and my heart,” she said.

The road to “Remembering Lee: The Noblest Revenge is to Forgive” wasn’t a smooth one. “I just wrote for three years, it was a long process. It was a hard process going through all those emotions. But I’m so glad I did,” she said.

She added that forgiveness is not about the person that you’re supposed to forgive it’s about your heart. “When you have to forgive somebody, you’re not excusing what they did, but you’re just releasing that hatred in your heart. So the Lord can use you in great and mighty ways for His work.”

The book is available on PaigeMcLemore.com and also at Surrey Center Pharmacy.

In addition to the book, McLemore also shares her testimony to churches and other organizations and groups. You can contact her on her website, too.