Not long after her funeral, I read something her father said during the service in which he gave the eulogy for the beautiful, loving, compassionate young woman that was his daughter.
He is quoted as saying that, in the midst of what I can only imagine is the greatest loss of his life, he has seen, in the man charged with Mollie's murder, the worst that human beings are capable of. And at the same time, he has also seen the very best of our humanity in the army of volunteers who searched tirelessly for his daughter and in the dedicated efforts of the police and the FBI who worked the case 24/7 without let up.
As I'm reading this, I'm thinking how incredible is this father that, in the midst of the terrible, senseless loss of his only child, he is able to see there is still great good in people. That people still care.
As survivors, we have lived through horrors that frequently defy human comprehension. I was beaten and sexually assaulted until I was 18 by the two men who bore the title of father in my life. As a result, I learned to trust no one. I assumed that all men were bad; sexual predators with only one goal.
To paint all men with such a broad brush is both unfair and inaccurate. There are terrible people in this world who commit unspeakable acts against others. But as Mollie's dad so eloquently points out, they do not comprise the whole of our humanity. There remains others who willingly trudged through miles of cornfields, streams, abandoned buildings, etc looking for a young woman some had never met.
The take away for me in this is that if this man whose daughter was so brutally ripped out of his life can have the insight to still see the good in people, I can try to do better at this myself.
Food for thought.
JC
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