Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Winter 2013 | Page 53

student profile
Care in Community

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After suffering a great loss, this senior is healing, and
watching God begin to redeem her pain and struggle.
by Andrew Thompson ’13

ollie Trager ’13 arrived at Wheaton full
of many of the usual freshman jitters
and aspirations. That first year she
successfully ran for class vice president,
and got involved in groups such as
Gospel Choir and Young Life.
Her student government bid paralleled
her dad’s own bid for U.S. Congressman
of the 8th district of Wisconsin. A
radiologist by trade, Marc Trager had
retired due to eye problems caused by
type 1 diabetes, and had then decided to
throw his hat into the political race.
The summer after her freshman year,
Mollie went on the Wheaton in Spain
study abroad program. While there,
Mollie got a text from her dad saying
that he had dropped out of the race. “I’ll
be fine, don’t worry about me . . . I just
need to do this to take care of myself,”
her dad wrote.
As the trip was nearing its end,
Associate Professor of Foreign Language
Dr. Christine Kepner called Mollie aside
so that she could answer a phone call
from her mother.
That call would forever change
her life. Her dad, who had become
increasingly anxious and depressed, had
killed himself.
The next hours and days went by in
a haze as Mollie packed to fly home
to be with her family. The rest of the
Wheaton in Spain group wrote notes for
her to read on the flight home. Though
she recalls being scared, she says, “They
really showed me the body of Christ.
They were all hurting for me. I was part

of their family.”
When Mollie tried to return to
Wheaton for her sophomore year, she
couldn’t cope with what had happened.
“I was never actively suicidal like
my dad, but I remember calling my
mom and saying, ‘I don’t want to live
anymore! This is so hard!’” She took
the fall semester off to heal. Her best
friends reached out to her, some calling
every day.
“Through all of the difficulty, I
feel like God gave me a small picture
of what Dad was going through. It’s
debilitating.”
Professors reached out and President
Ryken wrote her a note and called her
when she had to leave the College.
Because of the care and support,
Mollie was able to return to Wheaton
in the spring. During the first allschool communion, she heard a student
leader sharing about a recent bout with
depression. At that moment, Mollie
realized that she would one day be
speaking from that lectern. That day
came in April 2011 when she was
one of the student speakers for Staff
Appreciation Chapel. “I knew I had
to talk about my dad’s death to convey
why the Wheaton staff meant so much
to me,” she says. “It was a turning
point, being able to verbalize what had
happened.”
The healing process is not over.
“I’m still missing my dad. There’s still
a lot of sadness there.” But Mollie is
doing well. A Bible and theology major

pursuing an accelerated master’s in
Christian formation and ministry,
she has become passionate about
mentoring other students. She also serves
as a Young Life leader at a local high
school, where she sees God at work—
using her to help others heal.

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