Rob and Jen Slocumb of Opelika have received national attention in Canada after penning a song dedicated to the widow of a murdered man in Jen Slocumb's hometown of Ancaster, Ontario.
"We didn't know the Bosma family, but Ancaster is a small town like Auburn or Opelika," Jen said. "So when you're from a community like that, you feel like you know them."
Tim Bosma was murdered in what has been described as an alleged "thrill kill." After advertising the sale of his 2007 Dodge Ram pickup truck online, he left to take two men on a test drive and never returned. His body was found eight days later in an incinerator; his truck was found in a warehouse, completely disassembled.
Left in the wake of this crime was Bosma's wife, Sharlene, whose grief-stricken press conference, held immediately after learning of her husband's death, became the inspiration for the Slocumb's song, "Prayer for the Broken Heart."
"Being able to follow the story every day online, we felt very emotionally attached to what was going on," Jen said. "We weren't really planning on writing a song about it, but it kind of just happened really quickly."
Jen's husband, Rob, explained how the song came to be.
"I started this song the same way I start a lot of songs," Rob Slocumb said. "I just used my emotion. Sharlene had just held the press conference, and after watching it I was just really moved by what she had to say. The opening line, 'How can a man take the life of another man?' is basically where I was going with it. How can a human life devalue another human life like that?"
After Rob started writing the lyrics, the couple worked through the night to finish them, and by daybreak they had written a song that would touch the lives of an entire community more than 1,000 miles away.
"After I brought Jen in on (the song) and we finished it, we realized that the song was really for Sharlene. It was just a message of hope," Rob said.
When "Prayer for the Broken Heart" was completed, Jen forwarded it to her sister, Kristel Petropoulos, who lives in Ancaster. Petropoulos shared the song with a friend close to the Bosma family, and from there, it took on a life of its own.
"A good friend of mine is really close to the family," Petropoulos said, "and after I sent the song to him, he was very cautious to present it to (the Bosmas). But when he did, they were very touched and moved by it. I think his exact words were, 'This song expresses exactly how we all feel.' That's what is so great about this song. (The Slocumbs) captured what every single person out there is feeling about this whole situation."
By that time, the Bosma case was in the national spotlight, and it didn't take long for the Slocumbs' ballad to begin hitting home with everyone who heard it.
"It just went viral up there," Rob said "So much so that the national media started catching wind of it. The local paper and CBC Canada did stories on the song, and we also did a Skype session with the Global News in Toronto. It's just crazy how quickly it spread."
The Slocumbs have since posted the song on their band's website, www.marthastrouble.com, where it can be downloaded for a small fee, and every dollar they make is contributed to a trust fund for the Bosma family.
"We're big believers in community," Rob Slocumb said. "We're a big part of the Opelika community, but we were also a part of the Ancaster community at one time. Anything we can do to help out was really our intent. We just wanted to do whatever we could to help the family."
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