Letter to the Editor

Your view: Poetic tribute

Monday, February 24, 2003

They were forty miles over Texas, up in the sky so blue.

It looked a lot like heaven and they were only passing through.

But God, in His infinite wisdom, decided He wanted them to stay

Forty miles over Texas on that dreadful, fateful day.

I do believe He had a plan to call them home that particular date,

And so He let it happen, forty miles above the Lone Star State.

They had been out in space to see what they could see,

Just trying to make things better for folks like you and me.

I think God wanted them to be where others never roam,

But forty miles over Texas, He decided to call them home.

They are with the Lord in His great domain never more to part,

And forty miles over Texas is where it all did start.

Their souls are with God in heaven, and there they will stay.

It happened forty miles over Texas and we will never forget that day.

Seven brave and lovely people, to be astronaut was their desire,

And they became our heroes -

Why God took them from us is not for us to inquire.

We live by faith and not by sight, so things like this we must accept.

God's reason for these things, He hasn't revealed to us yet.

But someday soon we'll stand hand in hand

Along God's precious shore,

And when we do, we will understand and question Him no more.

I do believe God wanted and needed these special seven

To be with Him and help finish the work He has to do in heaven.

So, forty miles over Texas is where He called them to be with Him.

And they are smiling down on us and telling us not to worry anymore about them.

For they are with the Lord and in His arms of love,

And we must remember God wanted what happened forty miles above.

In loving memory,

Dr. Charles B. Baker