Good Things · 14 days ago

Isaac's Body Will Be Carried Home by the Kindness of Strangers

Twenty-two-year-old Isaac David Satlat was weeks from graduating as an engineering student, weeks from turning 23, weeks from reuniting with his mother in Nigeria after ten years apart -- when a routine R33 e-hailing trip ended in his murder. In the aftermath of senseless violence, something else emerged: strangers across continents raised 106% of funeral costs to bring his body home, flooding the campaign with messages that said, in essence, *you trusted us with your son, and though we failed him, we will not abandon you now*. Students and drivers stood outside court with placards demanding justice; church communities gathered to pray; hundreds gave what they could so that Isaac's mother might lay her son to rest with dignity. "He was very creative with his hands," a family friend remembered, speaking of a gentle young man who loved to create and was building a bright future. What cannot be undone has been met with what can: the choice of ordinary people to ensure that in his family's darkest hour, they would not grieve alone.