Family uses daughter’s legacy to help others
BALTIMORE — Kris and Randy Brake suffered one of the worst things a parent can experience — the death of a child.
Katelyn Brake, 27, was killed on her way to work at Fairfield Christian daycare center in a traffic crash on July 23, 2019. The Ohio Highway Patrol said Christopher Mersing, then 23, of Glouster, traveled left of center in a 1998 Ford Ranger and struck Brake’s 2009 Toyota Prius on Ohio 158 just north of Rainbow Drive.
“It’s just sad that she got taken away from us,” Randy Brake said of his late daughter. “It’s kind of senseless. We don’t even really know why.”
Mersing last week pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of vehicular homicide, traveling left of the center line and driving under license suspension. Municipal Court Judge David Landefeld gave Mersing 180 days in jail, but suspended 90 of them and gave him credit for 65 days served, leaving him with 25 days left to serve.
Landefeld also suspended Mersing’s driver’s license until July 23, 2024, and fined him $25 for each charge.
Katelyn Brake’s death spurred the family to form WWKD Ministries (What Would Katelyn Do) to help build the Katelyn Brake Youth Center at Calvary Apostolic Church in Westerville, which is where the family attends church. Another purpose of the foundation is to help at-risk children achieve their goals.
Katelyn Brake graduated from Ohio State University with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. At the time of her death, she was in her final semester online at Liberty University to earn her master’s degree in Christian counseling.
“There’s a lot of people in Lancaster that know her because she spent her young life there,” Randy Brake said. “People from the school, people from some churches there and also she was an administrator in the daycare. There’s a lot of people in the community that know her.”
He said his daughter was a passionate woman who was heavily involved in her church. Katelyn Brake also did a lot of mission work, work that sent her to Switzerland twice, Ireland, London, Austria, Italy, and Costa Rica.
The day after her death, the family found a vocal recording she made of a Christian song called “Never Have
Enough” that she wrote. Her brother, Jordan, led an effort to get a band to record music around the vocals. The family is using the song to help promote the foundation.
“It was a personal song,” Randy Brake said. “She could never have enough of God is what the song says. The principal is the closer we get to God, the less we worry about ourselves.”
The family played the song at her funeral, which he said drew about 1,500 people. Many in the crowd sang to the vocal track that was accompanied by a live band.
The Brake family has had a little more than a year to deal with their loss.
Kris Brake is a teacher at Fairfield Christian Academy and drives by the spot where her daughter died when going to work each day. She said she thanks God each time she passes the spot.
“You thank God in the good times and the bad times,” she said. “And literally, that’s how I make it. I thank God. When we walked down to see her for the first time in the casket, there’s a little bit of that anxiousness. But we walked down and immediately my hands raised and I just began to thank Him, and thank Him and thank Him. There’s something about thanking Him in the bad times that just releases.”
Kris Brake said she also praised God at the crash scene when police told her that her daughter didn’t survive.
“I just started thanking God and worshiping God and praising God,” she said. “He’s a good God. He would never want to do anything that would really harm us. That was in my mind. That has lasted, because somehow God has gave me this peace at that moment.”
Kris Brake said she has never felt anger toward God.
“It’s only been, ‘God, thank you that you trusted me enough to walk through this,’” she said. “I really believe He trusted me. He must have thought that she’s a strong mom and we can do this. I took it more as a complement than as somebody trying to hurt me.”
Kris Brake also said there is a reason Mersing survived the crash.
“God could have taken him, too,” she said. “If we thought he was a nothing, we’d be like why didn’t he die and Katelyn live? But there’s a reason he’s living, and if somehow he can grasp that. I can’t do anything, but I know God can.”
Randy Brake said Mersing expressed remorse at his sentencing and that he and his family forgive him. He also said Mersing’s sentence is fair.
“I think for the most part he was given the maximum that he could have been,” Randy Brake said. “At this point, what’s done is done. We’re fine with it. He did apologize to the family.”
He said hearing Mersing express regret was his biggest concern.
“Our hope is that he’ll take this chance and do something with it,” Randy Brake said.