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Subscribe to RSSFuneral directors from throughout Connecticut have come forward to help the grieving town, another example of support that's so desperately needed. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.
Updated at 4:50 p.m. ET: With tears and hugs, a grief-rocked Connecticut town said farewell Monday to the first of its slain children: two 6-year-olds being buried in unbearably small coffins on a cold, gray day.
The funerals of first graders Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto will be followed by two dozen more services over coming days as the other children and staffers murdered at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday are laid to rest.
PhotoBlog: Funerals begin for victims of Sandy Hook shooting
A misty rain was in the air as mourners -- many in black, others in school gear emblazoned with a capital “N” -- gathered outside the Honan Funeral Home on Main St. for Jack’s funeral.
Mourners said the sports-loving youngster was wearing the red-and-white jersey of his idol, New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, who had honored him by printing his name on his cleats for Sunday’s game.
At a viewing before the packed service, where psalms were read, more than two dozen members of his wrestling club presented Jack’s grandmother with their medals.
“We’re broken,” Jack Wellman, 13, who helped coach the junior wrestlers, said outside the funeral home.
“It’s a nightmare we’re not waking up from,” said his mother, Caren Wellman. Her son added, “Unfortunately, there’s going to be a lot more.”
Victims in Conn. shooting: Daring principal, fun-loving teacher, 6-year-old twin
Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images
The second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history sent crying children spilling into the school parking lot as frightened parents waited for word on their loved ones.
Twenty-five miles away, in Fairfield, Noah’s family gathered at another funeral home, on a street where some nurses had decorated lampposts with white balloons and well-wishers left teddy bears and flowers at the base of a maple tree.
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy met with family before the service at the Abraham L. Greene & Sons Funeral Home, where the brown-haired boy was laid in a simple wooden casket adorned with the Star of David.
Noah's mother, Veronika Pozner, spoke and called her son "her little man," according to Rabbi Yehoshua Hect.
An uncle, Alexis Haller, remembered Noah – whose twin sister, Arielle, was in a different classroom and survived Adam Lanza's murderous rampage -- as a funny child with a mischievous streak.
"If Noah had not been taken from us, he would have become a great man. He would been a wonderful husband and a loving father," Haller said, according to remarks he provided to The Associated Press.
It is unspeakably tragic that none of us can bring Noah back," he said. "We would go to the ends of the earth to do so, but none of us can. What we can do is carry Noah within us, always.
“We can remember the joy he brought to us. We can hold his memory close to our hearts. We can treasure him forever."
There will be no reprieve from the sorrow in Newtown this week, as each day brings more funerals.
On Tuesday, there will be a noon service at St. Rose of Lima Church in Newtown for Jessica Rekos, 6, a girl who loved horses and had asked Santa for cowgirl boots and a hat. Her parents had promised to get her a horse when she was 10.
Obama vows action on gun violence: 'These tragedies must end'
“She was a creative, beautiful little girl who loved playing with her little brothers, Travis and Shane,” her family said in a statement.
“She spent time writing in her journals, making up stories, and doing ‘research’ on orca whales - one of her passions after seeing the movie ‘Free Willy’ last year. She said her dream was to see a real orca. Thankfully her dream was realized in October when she went to SeaWorld.”
The couple called Jessica, their first-born, the “rock of the family.”
“She had an answer for everything, she didn't miss a trick, and she outsmarted us every time. We called her our little CEO for the way she carefully thought out and planned everything,” they wrote.
As a community mourns those who were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting on Friday, children and parents come to terms with the tragedy. NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.
“We cannot imagine our life without her. We are mourning her loss, sharing our beautiful memories we have of her, and trying to help her brother Travis understand why he can't play with his best friend.”
The funeral of teacher Victoria Soto, 27, is scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m. at Lordship Community Church, Stratford. Burial will follow at Union Cemetery in Stratford.
Soto’s cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told the Wall Street Journal that she had tried to shield her first-graders from the bullets. "That is how she was found. Huddled with her children," Wiltsie said.
Seven-year-old student Daniel Barden’s funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Rose of Lima Church, followed by burial at St. Rose Cemetery.
A funeral mass for student Catherine Hubbard, 6, is due to be held at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Rose of Lima Church, followed by burial at St. Rose Cemetery.
Her parents, Jennifer and Matthew Hubbard, released a statement expressing gratitude to emergency responders and for the support of the community. “We are greatly saddened by the loss of our beautiful daughter, Catherine Violet, and our thoughts and prayers are with the other families who have been affected by this tragedy,” they said.
The Connecticut Funeral Directors Association is releasing details of the services, and victims’ families have been releasing statements with poignant memories.
The family of Ana Grace Marquez-Greene, 6, called her “our precious angel” – a generous spirit who left “I love you” notes under her parents’ pillow, who learned to sing before she talked, and who danced from room to room in her home.
“We ask that you pray for the legions of people who are left behind to cherish memories of her,” wrote her parents, Nelba Marquez-Greene and saxophonist Jimmy Greene.
“We also ask that you, like Ana, commit selfless acts of kindness to all those around you. Maybe, in some way, through love, similar senseless acts of violence could be prevented.”
Watch the entire interfaith vigil for Connecticut shooting victims, including President Obama's speech.
More content from NBCNews.com:
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- Police: Second person injured in Connecticut school shooting survived
- Video: After Sandy Hook shooting, schools address safety
- Snow storms forecast for parts of New England, Northwest
- Authorities probe report of swimmer riding sperm whale that died off Fla. coast
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Anyone who can still defend automatic weapons ownership in the face of the mass murder of 20 six and seven year old children is a sick person and lacking in human feelings. To you defenders of guns: 20 six and seven year old children. Do you understand that? You are sick people and if you cannot reflect on yourself and see your disease, then get into therapy so someone else can perhaps help you to see what a sick person you are. When you defend automatic weapons, you are doing so with a diseased mind. If the murder of 20 six and seven year old children doesn't break through that sickness, get some help. And soon.
For the rest of us, we cannot allow ourselves to be held hostage any longer by these diseased people and their fetish for murder and death. Look at some of the remarks people have made in this forum alone. "We are a violent country". That individual thinks the violence is just great and he loves it. He celebrates it. He is a sick individual and he is pro-murder. The rest of us must put an end to this. Write to your congressmember and tell him or her that you want the to stop now and you expect them to take action that will end it. Demand that they show courage and leadership. I wrote to my cogressmember yesteday. Write to yours today. It doesn't matter if he is a worthless gun lover. Let them know what you think and maybe, if enough of us voice our co tempt for the pro-murder lobby, something can be done.
Demand courage and leadership of your congressmember. Settle for nothing less.
You do KNOW he did NOT have any AUTOMATIC weapons.
You may want to read this story also.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/20856/adam-lanza-shooting-this-mass-murderer-might-have-been-motivated-by-drugs-not-by-guns
Then let's ban even more categories of guns. All the news reports say he had a Bushmaster .22, which was a category or weapon that had been banned when the assault weapon ban was in effect.
20 six and seven year old children died in that classroom, and if you are just correcting my information, but oppose the weapons, that's fine. If you are trying to muddy the discussion with irrelevant reports with titles like "May Have Been Motivated" (in other words, another attempt to move the topic from gun control to something, anything else, even with such hard information as it "May Have Been" this or that, you are irrelevant).
20 six and seven year old children, murdered in a school classroom, are crying out from their graves for decency and so many of you people are trying to change the subject so you can carry a gun and feel like a big man. Ev ery one of you pipsqueaks who defends assault weapons is a mass murderer today. If you gave money to the NRA to battle the assault weapons ban, you murdered those children as surely as if you had pulled the trigger yourselves. If you can't stand your guilt, don't try to change the subject just so you can feel better about being a mass murderer.
People this is NOT an Issue about GUN RIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP POLITICIZING this horrific TRAGEDY!! This has NOTHING to do with politics right now!!!! Let these people grieve...........for their losses! Why do some people always make it about about politics when something like this happens? It's pretty pathetic of you! Such innocent's lost'! My prayers to the families in Newtown.....Godbless you at this time
DBK you are the sick SOB that needs treatment.
20 six and seven year old children were murdered in a classroom. This is the best time ever to discuss this issue. Every time some mass murderer (was it seven or eight times this year) kills a bunch of people, someone starts crying "Don't politicize this tragedy." Those people are enablers for the next mass murder. Everyone defending their gun rights, which apparently are greater than the rights of 20 six and seven year old children to not be murdered, is a mass murderer as surely as if they pulled the trigger themselves. You want to memorialize those children? Stop the gun violence. And that means get rid of the guns. Or admit that owning a gun is more important to you than the lives of little children.
I cannot imagine how anyone who has children could look at their own children today and cling to their all important "gun rights". Anyone who could do that is diseased. I am sympathetic to the diseased, but I don't think the nation should be held hostage by the mentally ill.
As a parent there can be nothing as tragic as the loss of a child. As a human I realize there are going to be many different reactions to this. I am not watching too much coverage of this because I actually have lost faith in our government to actually problem solve. As a man I want to try to fix this. So those of you who are upset that some commenters are talking politics here please understand that we all know one of the problems here in America is POLITICS. We dont talk about the crazy guy that lives down the street because of political correctness. We defend M16s in the hands of the public, high capacity magazines, concealed weapon permits, gun show sales, etc because of POLITICS. The Mental health system is equally to blame. Our culture is ill, and needs changing.
I have slightly more that zero faith that something might get done only because Mr. Obama is our president who I feel has a little DonQuixote in his heart. And yes nearly all Congressmen are useless in this situation.
I would like to say something good about Republicans like maybe, like Joe Scarbough and the Grinch, their hearts might grow one or two sizes this season and they might come to their senses.
My prayers go out to the families of the victims, may their strength shame our government into action.
In this situation it does not matter if there is a God or not, if it helps these parents in any small way to believe that there child is with Jesus it is one of the very few things that can provide some comfort at this time.
We can grieve and pray for the families without seeing every picture of every little child splashed all over your stupid page just to sensationalize an already tragic event. There are those who say that these crazy misguided kinds of acts start from the knowledge that the more disgusting it is, the more media coverage it will generate and out of that, the more posthumous attention they will get. Teenagers used to shop lift to get attention, now they have to one up the last idiotic, misguided, teen to insure they get some attention.
Out of all the tragedies that have taken place in my life time (22 years) this one hits me the hardest. I did not know any of the people or children, but my heart is broken. I can't read an article without tearing up. I'm just at a loss for what to say, I am so sad and it's that hard lesson of life, that it's not fair. I'm not religious, I don't even know if I believe in god, but for the first time, I prayed. I prayed that someone, something, anyone would stop the hate. Stop the violence. With a broken heart I write Rest in Peace to the children, to the teachers and to their innocence.
Me too. :-(
yes.
No wonder the world looks at us with derision. Something is seriously wrong in this society. It just ain't about the guns, either.
Just because they are small does not mean their souls are small. I think children have the biggest souls of all.
What a wonderful point.
This is such a tragedy. Why didn't he just turn the gun on himself, instead of shooting innocent babies.
I couldn't read this entire article; I can't cry again.... My heart aches for the families of these beautiful babies. Though I can't agree with putting pictures of the mourning families all over the news, I do commend you for writing about each child and a little about them. I won't go into my rant about how the media greatly influences tragedies like this one, but please be careful how you portray this; frankly we need to stop talking about it altogether so no other monsters get anymore ideas....
They are in eternal happiness with God in Heaven. Getting everything they asked Santa for and then some.
Merry Christmas!
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either holmes and lanza went through what i am going through (24/7 voices),
or there is a chance they got mad when they realized there x friends were torturing them the same way they watched me being tortured which would really piss me off
IT IS NOT VOICES IT IS THREAT ASSESSMENT TEAMS
imagine some guy says to you that person is crazy and here a video is to prove it
we need you to put some electronic equip in your house to monitor him
and here is money lots of money, because risperidone is paying for these tortures to prove or cover up a drug's utility
say im hearing voices without looking into the multitude of unbelievable claims i have made and c what happens, again
maybe they are waiting untilll after dooms day, but i know it wasw because of the election huh u dumb @!$%#ing autistic pitbull
i am so @!$%#ing pissed how have the cops not shown up yet?
BECAUSE THEY ARE NEXT DOOR, WTF HOW COME NOBODY IN ALBUQUERQUE NM GIVES A @!$%# THAT I AM THE DANGEROUS PERSON IN THE COUNTRY, JUST BY FORCING YOU TO EAT HOW THIS COUNTRY @!$%#S WITH PEOPLE
Obama and the media are still mastrabating over this story. They're rubbing their hands in glee. --'O boy, now we can try to attack Second Amendment rights'. 'IF IT BLEEDS IT LEADS'.
What happened to the 'Fiscal cliff' ?
Shallow minds drown in deeper thought............ do you need a life preserver rob?
as far as the fiscal cliff.........looks like you fell off it
Rob....you truly are pathetic...I'm a Republican as well, but this is neither the time nor the place to spew that garbage. Can you not think about yourself and your agenda for this short time to honor these people??
Please quit responding to these trolls and bottom feeders. This is not the time or place for Obama postings, Gun Control postings, etc. Let the families grieve. The natural order of things has been destroyed here. No one should have to bury a child. My heart and my prayers go out to all of the victims and their families. Including, yes, the father and the brother of the shooter - their lives are nothing less than a living hell right now.
May God welcome these 26 fallen angles, and hold them tight until their parents come home to you as well. "to that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens"
It is high time to label the NRA as a terrorist organization. They oppose every sensible gun law that has ever been proposed including high cap magazines, assault weapons meant for combat, and registration. They claim that these laws intrude on our personal freedom. We as a country must take some collective responsibility and send this organization back to the cave from which it emerged.
I have experienced death in the hell hole that was Vietnam, but nothing in my past experience prepared me for the event that happened Friday morning. In combat everyone was armed, these children and their caretakers did not have a chance, and as for those fanatics that say arm the teachers, that is lunacy as well, for then you have the potential of gun fights in our schools.
Parents like the shooters mother must have access to mental health resources as a start, if anything she was paranoid to have this arsenal at the disposal of her psycho son. Unfortunately mental health has been put on the back burner of our society, and that, combined with the plethora of firearms out there, and the NRA guaranteeing easy access for all, insures that this kind of tragedy will visit us again
NRA -National Republican Army.........the only union that the republicans will protect.
Shallow minds drown in deeper thought............ do you need a life preserver depraw?
You and Rob can share....
depraw stick your comment. It is not needed here.
markdw.......
rob is worried about second amendment rights? what about the constitutional rights of these innocent children? didn't they have the right to go to school and not have to worry that some idiot could get his hands on an assault weapon and kill them. where is that right? and don't come back with the loser answer that his mom was solely responsible. he could of gone to any gun show and produced a false i.d and walked out with the same weapon. no questions asked.
so please answer my question.......What happened to these children's constitutional right to be able to attend school and be able to return home to their parents?
I believe Rob's comment was ridiculous and inappropriate on this thread...as I believe yours #43.1 was also.
Although it's difficult today to see beyond the sorrow, May looking back in memory help comfort all of you tomorrow.
www.your1word.com
Folks--the problem is not the NRA. It's not the members of the NRA and it's not the 2nd Amendment. The problem is in Washington--both sides of the aisle--and the ineffectiveness of our elected officials to find compromise for the betterment of our country. Republicans and Democrats alike are so caught up in being "correct" they are blinded by the reality facing all of us. This Nation is in serious trouble if we the people do not change our expectations of those we vote into office.
It's not just gun laws....it's every issue raised by every candidate.
This isn't a time to politicize the issue of gun ownership. It's not the time to debate what the founding fathers meant 200+ years ago when the wrote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It's the time for laws to be written that give our citizens what the promise of America is all about....life and liberty for the common good.
Look, I'm a conservative Republican. I've never fired a gun and I believe the strength of this country lies in the freedoms we have. But it's insane to think that there is any good coming from the sale and distribution of weapons like the one used in Newtown. Politicians--our elected employees-need to come to their senses before this happens again. The time for finger pointing and nasty rhetoric has to be over. How many more citizens have to die? How many more lives have to be shattered? Put an end to this nonsense or stay home after the Christmas break. We don't need you in Washington.
What is the problem with the weapons? Are they scary looking? Look at the weapons below. Is the second scary? Surprise! It's the same model .22 rifle that I gave my kid for Christmas years ago. Something LOOKS scary, so folks believe it's somehow more dangerous.
I know some scary looking people. Should we lock them up for being ugly?
There are many semi automatic weapons. My little 22's are semi automatic. I can sent a dozen rounds down range in less than 15 seconds. That does NOT make it a dangerous weapon unless you are an intruder.
Guns are not the problem it is the mental midgets that shoot people are the problem. They can get guns from other places like murder scenes, from dead police officers after they have been killed, take them from gun shops(rarely), but to say that we need to outlaw that type of guns is not being informed on what type of gun you are reffering to.
Automatic: 1 pull of trigger at least 3 rounds down range, that is a quick pull and let off.
Semi automatic. 1 round per pull of the trigger. revolver is s form of semi-automatic. some shotguns are semi automatic. The 9MM and glocks you hear about are semi-automatic.
Then you have the single shot shotguns, The pump action guns, then you have the lever action guns, and then you have the bolt action type guns.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/20856/adam-lanza-shooting-this-mass-murderer-might-have-been-motivated-by-drugs-not-by-guns
A tortured soul took the lives of the innocent. May their young innocent souls forever rest in peace.
One armed security guard could have prevented the burying of many little souls. Public schools refuse to protect our children of which they have responsibilty for their safety. Not just a nut, but any violent person or persons can attack any totally unarmed school. How long will our public school officials put our children in harms way and allow this carnage to continue? Does someone need to sue for neglect??? We have security guards at banks to prevent someone from stealing a few hundred bucks, but they refuse to protect our children.
Still waiting for the police response time to the 911 call????
Well spoken
It was actually really quick. don't try to blame the police
good point dav1bg.........
but you have to ask the 2 Kansas Policemen that were just killed. they were armed but that didn't hep them against some lone idiot.
Fine, limit what type of guns we can buy and make it harder to buy a gun. I am fine with all that. But you do realize that will not solve the problem. This is a 24hr make you famous media that attract these loosers. Not sure what can be done about that and the media will never say that is part of the problem.
Ready some of these posts it's no wonder this country is in deep trouble. Stick to the subject if possible!
Your headline says you are burying "little souls". Their souls have moved on to heaven...RIP !!!
Look at what Hollywood puts out and violent video games.
excellent point. shouldn't all violent movies be X-Rated. I mean we give an x-Rating because of nudity but we can show someone getting their brains blown up,arms blown off and and any other gory scenario in extreme detail and think nothing of it. We live in a sick society.
This tragedy has shaken me to my very core. I'm not even a parent but my heart is aching and my mind tormented for all those in Newtown that have suffered unspeakable loss at the hands of that soul-less, evil incarnate. I pray for peace, comfort, and strength for you in these difficult times. Know that as a nation, many of us stand by you in spirit, as lost as to the why as you are, and grieving in our own ways for each of you and those you loved and lost to senseless brutality. Nothing I can say here will help you but you are all in my thoughts and prayers. I can't even think or say of anything that helps me deal with this madness.
My sincerest condolences to all. I am so sorry for your loss.
"There is no foot so small that it cannot leave an imprint on this world" ... the world stands and mourns with you Connecticut....