11:15 PM CDT on Sunday, June 19, 2005

By JOHN PRONK / WFAA-TV

If ever there was a people person it is Martha Tennison.

However, reverend Tennison has seen her share of sorrow. In 1988 a church bus carrying 67 members of her Kentucky congregation was struck by a drunk driver.

"Our bus became an inferno," Tennison said.

Twenty-seven people were killed, most young, and 30 were injured. It was the worst such tragedy in U.S. history.

"It changed our lives to realize how important each day is with our loved one and our friends," Tennison said.

Martha and her husband Don were not on board, but their son was and he managed to survive. However, so did the drunk driver. He was a repeat DUI offender.

"He was sentenced to 16 years," Tennison said of the offender's fate. "He served nine years and seven months and was out. But you know what we had to do? We had to forgive him."

Now Martha and her husband spend 48 weeks a year touring the country and telling their story of tragedy, heartache and hope.

Doyce Grant came to hear the Tennisons at the Christian Life Assembly of God in Carrolton. He lost his 27-year-old daughter to a drunk driver nine years ago this month.

"It's a parent's worse nightmare to loose a child," Grant said. "It's just one of those thing you don't get over, but you get through it."

Mothers Against Drunk Driving helped bring the Tennisons to the Carrolton church to share their story.

"It's not an accident when people drink and drive," Tennison said. "It's a tragedy. It changed our lives and our church bonded together because we realized the next day none of us might be here"

E-mail jpronk@wfaa.com