Kayla Jean Mueller, the now forever 26-year-old humanitarian worker held hostage since August 2013 by ISIS, is dead, according to her family and the White House.
Mueller — whose face, writings and actions bore living witness to caring, charity and goodness — was reported by the Islamic State to have been killed in an air attack by coalition forces against the militants in Syria after Jordan began bombing in the wake of the burning death of another hostage, a Jordanian pilot. Officials confirm her death, but have said they had no evidence to support the claims that she was killed in the Jordanian air strike.
“Kayla represents what is best about America, and expressed her deep pride in the freedoms that we Americans enjoy, and that so many others strive for around the world,” said President Barack Obama in sending his condolences to the Mueller family. “In how she lived her life, she epitomized all that is good in our world.”
As glowing as that is, it pales in light of her resume: After attending Northern Arizona University, she lived and worked with aid groups in northern India, Israel and the Palestinian territories. After returning home to Arizona in 2011, she worked at an HIV/AIDS clinic and volunteered at a women’s shelter. In late 2012, concern for families fleeing war-torn Syria drew her to Turkey to work with the aid groups Support to Life and the Danish Refugee Council. When she was abducted by ISIS in Syria, she was leaving a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders.
In writings to her family, she wrote: “Some people find God in church. Some people find God in nature. Some people find God in love. I find God in suffering. I’ve known for some time what my life’s work is, using my hands as tools to relieve suffering.”
While a hostage, she also wrote, “By God and by your prayers, I have felt tenderly cradled in free-fall. I have been shown in darkness, light [and] have learned that even in prison, one can be free. I am grateful. I have come to see that there is good in every situation, sometimes we just have to look for it.”
The world was made a better place because of Kayla Jean Mueller — albeit, too briefly. And now the world will miss her.