PRESCOTT, Ariz. — The father of an international aid worker killed while being held captive by Islamic State militants read a moving letter at his daughter’s memorial service Saturday.
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.”
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 held in a college auditorium in Prescott, where Mueller grew up.
Speakers at the ceremony described Mueller as the ultimate Good Samaritan. Sen. John McCain’s voice cracked with emotion as he delivered a short tribute.
“We can try to give justice to her murderers’ other victims and their families,” the Arizona senator 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.”
