So two mornings ago, on April 21, detectives arrested Mark Gooch for the homicide of Sasha Krause. Gooch was serving as an airman at Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix, AZ. The 21-year-old is from a Mennonite family in Wisconsin, but I gather he never chose to serve the Lord. Whatever the case, he now stands accused of murder.
I really appreciate the short poem about his mother, written by…I don’t know who. I have two sources, and they don’t agree. One attributes it to a lady in the Wisconsin congregation; another, to someone in the Farmington congregation. But never mind that — here you have it:
A mother’s heart is breaking with pain that’s worse than death;
A mother’s heart is crushed with shame that stifles every breath…
For her boy, who once was pure and small, and innocent – like mine!
Full of boyish charms and lad-like dreams, so tender and so fine!
And though time has changed him from a boy to bitter man,
Yet her mother-heart remembers him, as only mother’s can.Dear God, be merciful to her tonight! Enfold her in a hug
This mother heart, whose ev’ry nerve, has borne a wrenching tug.
And may we, as her sisters, guard with jealous care the name
That to her is still so precious, though besmirched with blackest shame!
May we lift her up in pray’r, and may our words be kind and few
As we tuck to bed our small boys – who will someday be men, too.
Please read (or reread) this post of mine: Sasha Krause: Lost, Found, Buried. It includes a poem by Sasha herself. And this from her obituary:
On February 25, I posted this on Facebook:
May the perpetrator(s) be apprehended without further bloodshed. And may the perpetrator(s) come to full surrender to the Good Shepherd and join Sasha’s family of faith.
May God keep, bless, and direct the law enforcement folks working on this case.
I am grateful her accused killer was apprehended without further bloodshed. Now may he be won over by the Good Shepherd. Amen.