The father of an international aid worker killed while being held captive by Islamic State militants read a moving letter at his daughter’s hometown memorial service on Saturday, recounting her discovery that her life’s purpose was to ease the suffering of others.
Kayla Mueller’s father paused to regain his composure as he read the letter written while his daughter worked an earlier job at an orphanage in India.
“This is my life’s work,” Carl Mueller quoted his daughter as saying. “But my family is my life.”
Photo: AFP HANDOUT-THE MUELLER FAMILY
The 26-year-old was captured in August 2013 after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria, and held for 18 months.
An estimated 500 people attended the memorial in a college auditorium in Prescott, the northern Arizona mountain community where Mueller grew up. Speakers at the ceremony described Mueller as the ultimate Good Samaritan who had a quick wit and an overflowing heart.
US Senator John McCain’s voice cracked with emotion as he delivered a short tribute, saying Mueller has touched the lives of people who never actually knew her.
“We can try to give justice to her murderers’ other victims and their families,” he said. “But even if we succeed, and our retribution is swift and complete, we could not equal the rebuke that Kayla’s life gave to the culture of death that robbed her of it.”
A slideshow at the ceremony flashed images of happy moments in Mueller’s life.
Her father and brother, Eric Mueller, thanked the soldiers who risked their lives in a rescue attempt for Mueller.
In her hometown, Mueller helped raise awareness of HIV and AIDS and volunteered for the overnight shift at a women’s shelter. She protested genocide in Darfur, Sudan, while in college at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. She also traveled to the Palestinian territories, Israel, India and France.
Her parents have started a nonprofit organization called “Kayla’s Hands” to further her humanitarian efforts locally and internationally.
Mueller and her Syrian boyfriend were both taken hostage. He was released, but returned to Syria to try to free her. Mueller became interested in Syria after her boyfriend told her about the struggles of refugees there.
Her death was confirmed on Feb. 10 by her family and US officials. The militant group claimed she died in a Jordanian airstrike, but US officials have not confirmed that.
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