CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Jon Rottink, a Marshalltown resident, recently composed a song to honor the four teens who passed away in a car accident two weeks ago. His hope is for the song to provide solace to the still grieving community, as writing it did for him.

Two weeks after four Marshalltown teens passed away in a fatal car accident, the community is still grieving the tragic loss. Marshalltown resident Jon Rottink has written a song that he hopes will both honor their memory and provide solace to the community and the families of 13-year-old Adrian Lara, 16-year-old Isacc Lara, 15-year-old Linette Lopez and 17-year-old Yanitza Lopez.

Rottink, age 43, has been writing songs since his early 20s as a way to process difficult events that take place in his life and the community around him. It started as something he did purely for himself, but he was eventually encouraged to share the music he created with others, and one of the first songs he shared, “When Walls Fall Down,” was about the 2008 EF-5 tornado in Parkersburg, his mother’s hometown.

That was just the beginning, as Rottink has written several other songs over the years that are meant to serve similar purposes. After 8-year-old Franklin Elementary School student Christian Maxon passed away in 2019 when he was hit by a car walking home from school, Rottink wrote “My Heart is Your Home” to comfort the community and Maxon’s family.

The accident that took place late Nov. 4 affected Rottink deeply, alongside the rest of the community. Rottink works for Mid-Iowa Community Action in the Teen Outreach Program which has classes at Lenihan Intermediate School and Miller Middle School, and he had Adrian Lara in his class just last year. His children also know members of the Lara family.

Searching for solace and a way to move forward, Rottink turned to music and wrote “Be Well,” a tribute to the Lara and Lopez families and Marshalltown as a whole.

“For me, if a song is meant to be, it just kind of happens. I don’t sit down and say ‘Oh, I’m going to write a song,’ it just comes to me. Those songs that I’ve written have all been written in 10 or 15 minutes, so there’s just kind of a wave of emotion that gets let out. Almost like the song kind of writes itself,” Rottink said. “You never know who might be feeling what you’re feeling, or who needs to hear the words that you needed to hear. So, I’ve just kind of trusted that and with some vulnerability, just kind of put things out there when I feel like it’s appropriate.”

Rottink played the song for the students in his Teen Outreach Program classroom first before sharing it with the community on Facebook, and he said people seemed to be touched by the song.

“I’m just trying to honor their memory,” Rottink said. “Music, again, is just a way for me to kind of process. It’s always been a healing process for me, and it seems to be for many.”

Rottink said he cares deeply for his community, and his main goal is to help Marshalltown heal in whatever way he can.

To listen to “Be Well,” visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZZpdeSyUGQ. To learn more about Rottink and his other music, visit https://www.jonrottink.com/. A memorial mural in honor of the Lara and Lopaz teens was also completed at the Marshalltown Skatepark, located at 814 S. 6th St. recently, and the community is encouraged to visit and leave words of encouragement on the white border of the mural.

‘Be well’

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Contact Susanna Meyer at 641-753-6611 or smeyer@timesrepublican.com