02/20/2024
29 years! It’s hard to believe that 29 years have passed since the day we received that unimaginable phone call. Many of you have been with us since before that day and have walked with us through these last 29 years. During these 29 years we have had the privilege of adding many new friends who were touched by Tracie’s story and changed for the better.
Tracie was a daughter, a sister, a niece, an aunt and a friend; but most of all Tracie was a child of God.
Tracie loved people and accepted them for who they were. A friend with no strings attached. There for you when you needed her. Showing her faith in a way that has changed people and inspired them to serve in missions, at a juvenile facility and in many other ways. One of her favorite ways to serve people was to bake chocolate chip cookies for the sports teams. She made so many cookies that she knew the recipe by heart.
She led people with her enthusiasm for life. She had an inner joy that melted you with her smile. Her recruiter said that he felt her job was to come into his office and make him smile. Her smile was so much a part of her that she even smiled at 4:30 in the morning during pt and had to do many pushups because of it.
Tracie loved music and played many instruments and sang in many groups during school. Prior to leaving for the military she had been singing with the Lakeshore Singers. I remember her saying many times that she could hardly wait to be permanent party so that she could find a church and join a choir. I often think of her in the heavenly choir as her permanent station was heaven.
One of Tracie’s friends wrote that “Legacy is a tiny piece of life sprinkled into the lives of others…pieces of life that give hope and inspire us to give pieces of ourselves to others.”
Tracie had many passions in life but nothing was greater than her desire (calling) to serve her country. Even when she was turned down by another branch of the military-having the recruiter basically tell her she would not be able to pass the intelligence test, she never lost that desire. About a year later she tells me that she is going in to take the same test, and she was thinking about just a reserve spot. That day she calls and says I passed the test, they have one spot that is Fulltime and I leave in a week.
Talk about a shocker. On Wednesday she pops into my office and says I think we should sing a duet this Sunday. She choose the song: ” Trust his Heart”. Little did she realize that she was being prompted by the Holy Spirit to choose a song that would touch and heal many less than a year later.
The beginning of the song says
“All things work for our good. Though sometimes we can’t see how they could. Struggles that break our hearts in two sometimes blind us to the truth. Our father knows what’s best for us. His ways are not our own. So when you don’t understand when you can’t see his plan remember you’re never alone.”
I remember how excited and proud she was the day she called to tell us that she was chosen Soldier of The Cycle. I am sure the same pride was felt by her recruiter when the other military personnel told him that she would not make it when he was able to tell him not only had she made it but she was at the top of her basic training.
Tracie was not always at the top of what she did but she was always gave it her best effort and never quit. Her Spanish training was not easy for her but she was determined. I remember how happy she was when she completed it and was able to stand in the back of the church on her last trip home and carry on a conversation with our friend Roy.
6 weeks before her death she was again prompted to give leave us a message. On her mirror she wrote the scripture: “Cast your cares on the lord and he will sustain you he will not let the righteous fail.” She then took a photo of this. She never mentioned it to us but had told her friend Chris that she was taking the photo for us. I found this photo in Tracie’s drawer the day we were told of her fate, although when I found it I picked it up to bring home because she had pictures all around her mirror and I wanted everyone to know how important they were to her. It was only when Chris told us that she had written the scripture for us did we see it.
The scripture doesn’t tell us that he will take away the cares or the circumstances, it just says that he will sustain us through. He sustained us with a Pastor and family that would be there for us during some of the most difficult times even when I forgot that he was human, a church family that continually prayed for us, people around the country that were praying for us. God sustained us by giving us a Christian Prosecutor that loved us and was committed to doing her job. Someone who would walk through many hard years with us and became a lifelong friend in the midst of tragedy. It is not everyone who could say that they attended church with their prosecutor!
Scripture tells us: “That all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”
After you go through any tragedy you will hear someone quote this, and immediately you think
This is not good it can never be good.
But the scripture does not say that everything is good. Murder, r**e, abuse, health issues are not good and never will be. The scripture tells us that all things work together for good and the qualifier on this is “to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. The purpose is not in the bad and sometimes you need to look hard to find a purpose in it.
The purpose started in 2007 when Rachel a lady from San Angelo who had never met Tracie was touched and changed by Tracie’s life and death sent a check for 500 to start a scholarship fund.
The purpose has since grown and we have blessed numerous women, and organizations that help the veterans, music, homeless youth, babies and others. We have given over 50,000 in scholarships.
Tracie did not live her life thinking about what her legacy would be. She was 19 and that is not what you think about at that age. She lived her life in such a way that she left a piece of herself with everyone she knew and people she met by loving, serving and accepting people.
Her death reminds us of that we are not guaranteed tomorrow and the importance of loving people and letting them know that we care. It reminds us to follow our calling.
But it is her tragic death along with how she lived that touched people she knew but also has had the ability to change people she never knew. Her legacy continues to sprinkle into other lives through the scholarship fund.
While we may never know why she had to die in such a tragic way, we will continue to love God and follow the calling that he has placed in our lives to honor other young women and organizations who exemplify who Tracie was or believed in.
I hope through the years we have been able to sprinkle a piece of Tracie’s life into each of you so that you can go and sprinkle some of your life into others, not working out your legacy but living your legacy.
Although Tracie is dearly missed every day I am confident of this: One Day I will See Her Again.
