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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.
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- 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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NRA NRA,how many kids did you kill today?
NONE how many did you kill today?
I wanted to say that Steve.
Instead of blaming the NRA maybe we should see how he got access to his mothers weapons. My brother has quite a few guns....in fact....he is an instructor with the NRA. He has a LARGE safe to keep his weapons in...and guess who has the combination? Just him and his wife. He has children at home. I realize the killers mom is one of the victims but what safeguards did she take with the weapons she legally owned. Trigger lock cost about $20 I am guessing. If she had invested $60.00 and hid the key.....and according to what I have read the son had some mental issues. With those locks on there would be no massacre. Responsible gun owner???? I guess we will find out eventually
Jeff,the problem with blaming the gun owner is when you get around to it,the massacre has already happened,and in this case,already dead.
Amazing that there are so many miserable @!$%#s like Vinn 1112. I guess it is true to the saying that there are an army of @!$%#s out in this world and he or she is the General. Good going Vinn you jerkoff.
May all of these souls, so young and so bright, soar to that place where all good things reside.
As a father of my own 6 y.o. Noah, this just rips my heart out. I can not imagine the pain that these people are feeling.
God bless all of you. These angels are resting in Heaven.
As for the rest of you jumping on the band wagon and "never let a good crisis go to waste." You all need to have a little sensitivity toward your fellow man. You are part of the problem. You will run forward with your agenda no matter who you hurt. You all make me sick.
People want to find something to direct their anger and frustration against. The murderer killed himself, depriving us of answers. And, even though we have the Aurora shooter... alive, those answers may be meaningless. The universe has order, amid chaos. We want that order, and deplore the chaos. There has been and always will be chaos. Like the "whack-a-mole" game, we stamp out chaos where we find it, only to have it reappear in another time and place. Logic, reason, purpose, direction, and action are our only tools. Be brave, and fight the good fight! God bless these children, and take them to a better universe!
It's not the NRA. It's not drugs. It's not video games. It's not violence in movies. It's none of these "boogeymen" that you all want to make villains out of. It's definitely the lack of services, misinformation, fear. You all on both sides want to point fingers at and be absolutely certain in your judgment over what is the actual reason, but we will never truly know. However, there are some good educational guesses as to what the real reason could be, given circumstantial evidence- Adam Lanza became so wrathful, he wouldn't listen to his mother. He killed her for whatever reason pissed him off, and knowing that she was linked to that elementary school took out the rest of his insane wrath on those poor innocents.
But I'm fairly certain that Adam Lanza wasn't twisted by video games, or by violent movies, or by "gun culture." His mother only owned three weapons, not a whole collection, and before that sad day was only used for protection and practice. There's no listed evidence of his mother being a "prepper", as someone else posted in a different article over this tragedy. She lived in a semi-empty part of her neighborhood, but at least she wasn't making a bomb shelter up in some mountains. Doesn't make her anything but a mother just getting by on her divorce proceeds and trying to find a way of helping her son Adam be a good man.
None of that matters now, just 26 adults and children gone, yet most of you want to be kneejerk backseat drivers, not mourning with the parents over angels who won't be celebrating Christmas in this life ever again. However, you all who make these comments about guns, politics and politicians, Hollywood-based violence and witch-hunting video games NEED TO SIT BACK AND THINK of what you're saying, and ask yourself if you've actually have factual proof (peer-reviewed, not media twisted bias as your base) that it was one (or all) of these things, and not just a tragedy because Adam Lanza couldn't fight off the "demons" in his head without psychiatric help.
We need better psychiatric and psychological services, with the means for intervention. What we don't need is people going on a witch hunt with the same anger in their hearts, which, ironically, will spark the same kind of wrath and possibly want to hurt and/or kill someone (or people) because YOUR WAY ISN'T BEING TAKEN AS GOSPEL TRUTH AND YOUR WAY ISN'T BEING THE LAW OF THE LAND.
This has truly hit me harder than 9/11. I feel so bad for the families and for the little lives that have been taken in this horrible senseless crime. I know God has them in heaven. And the devil has that shooter!!!!
Livid about most. Well said. May all those who lost their lives Rest In Peace.
The bigger question,that will never be answered: Both God's Law and man's Law says,the power of life and death belongs only to God,only is supposed to mean no one else,nothing else,and man is not God,so why do we allow man to take the power of life and death in wars which are legal,and with the Death Penalty which is legal? Are we really respecting man's Law and God's Law?Are we really teaching respect for life? No,we're not. It's really hypocrisy.Jesus called the leaders of his day,hypocrites. Wars kill children,period,and God cares for ALL children,not just our children.Jesus says in the Bible,expect no reward from God loving only who love you,even sinners love their own.
It's called free will. The Lord gave that to us, so that for good or ill, we're allowed to make the choices in life that reflect respect for our Lord's laws and the laws of the land, or not respect them and we "reap what we sow". It's this factor that allows these things to happen, and I don't blame Him for it. Our Lord is blameless; we (in our choices) are to blame. When our dark side rises, we should ask Him to brace us, so that we can solve or get past the problem. When our good side is ascendent, we should thank Him for His Grace so that we can appreciate His Goodness and Righteousness, but most of us don't ask Him or thank Him.
However, equating this tragedy on God being taken out of schools and government is a ridiculous stretch. The Lord is with us no matter where we're at, as long as we invite Him with us, whether it's by personal prayer or in a group. Just because the Ten Commandments aren't posted in a school hallway doesn't mean that a child whose parents take them to church doesn't know what they are. Just because the Ten Commandments aren't posted in a court hallway doesn't mean the judge, jury, and the rest don't know what they are. All this separation of church from state has been a good thing for us. We as a people have religious freedom, hard-won and appreciated, that most countries envy and villify us for. Keeping the church free from the state means that there isn't a return to the corruption and horrors of faithless men using, abusing, and scrambling for personal power and not for the beauty of worshiping our Lord.
For a parent to lay a child to rest you can't even imagine the grief that they have. This is just a sad time and every chance i get i say a prayer for all of them.
This is a heart sickening tragety.Had the principal and teachers had a gun and the proper training to use it the loss of life may have been much less
... or much more.
This country will never be the same after all this .
Well I do agree, but what principal and teacher is going to have a gun on them in front of all their students.
Yes it may have been less killings, but again what message would we be sending to our children? Everyone carry a gun on them? Laws need to change to bar these assult weapons for sale. PERIOD!!! Then again you can go out on the streets and buy guns like this if you have the money. So where does it all end? I don't have the answer and I don't think anyone does. What is important here now is the families and the grief they are going through and to be along their side during this time and years to come.
ibe, While I am sick of the knee jerk "we need to ban guns now reaction," I had to make one point whether you agree or not.
In Mexico you are not allowed to privately own firearms, yet thousands of Mexicans, including children, are shot down every year by the Mexican drug cartels who buy the majority of their weapons from the black market.
How would outlawing firearms make any difference in this nation? Evil finds a way to cause harm. Look at the wack job in China that stabbed 22 kids and one adult. I would rather be carrying my own firearm to defend against this insanity than wait for the police to draw a chalk outline.
This discussion should not even be made right now.
God bless those families. Rest in peace little angels.
how could the parents ever heal from what this evil thing did..
R.I.P little ones -teachers-principal
Please stop referencing that POS when writing about the burials. We need not ever hear his name again. Dont give him the infamy he desired.
"All that you just said is completely irrelevant. The Constitution says that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Conveniently forgotten is that the Constitution says something about a "well-regulated militia". When you leave that out, you are basically a liar.
And besides that, all that you said is completely irrelevant in the face of 20 six and seven year old children being murdered by the guns that you love so much because the guns make you think you're a man.
If you can start babbling about the Constitution in the face of 20 murdered six and seven year old children then you suffer from cognitive dissonance or some other mental weakness. Which makes your remarks irrelevant. The Constitution is not only not a suicide pact, it isn't an excuse for sick, weak-minded people to commit murder.
Rush and his like have been yelling for the past 4 years that our country is at an end. Then they are surprised when one of their listens goes and acts out the despair they spread. Remember what he said about the US school systems only turn out liberals after the election, sounds like a cross hair to me.
I wonder if NBC - The Media - looks at these sites. If so, then here's my message to you - STOP !!!! Leave these people alone !!!! They are burying their loved ones, they are grieving, it's personal and it's NOT newsworthy.
What kind of people do you think we are? Not ghouls - we want them to have their privacy.
Stop shoving mics in their faces, get out of Newtown and let them heal as best they can. They don't want or need you. The loss of a loved one is personal - one you lose a loved one (as we all do/have done), would you like a camera on the scene??? NO !!!
Leave. Any further news on what transpired, the Newtown police will let you know so go and sit at your desk, go home, hug your children, partner and thank God or whoever you believe in that you're not in these peoples shoes.
Just STOP !!!
very much agree with this post
can't get much sadder than this
But it will.
These and other public killings are the result of a complete breakdown in the moral fabric of our society. Those that think guns are the reason for increased violence are simply ignoring the real issue, which is a matter of the heart. Ban guns all you want, mass killings will only continue and will continue in more barbaric ways. The true issue is that we have crippled our youth by destroying the nucleus of the family. We treat divorce as just another step in our lives on the road to success and some perceived happiness. We don't see divorce as the selfish tragedy that it is; as it tears apart our homes and wreaks havoc on our youth. We don't properly discipline our children and instead give them everything they want, because, well, our society tells us not to diminish their dreams. Then when they lack respect for authority and violently act out we blame their behavior on anything other than the responsibility of their parents. We selfishly walk through life solely focused on our own agendas and what we can do to better our lives, all the while people right around us are hurting and suffering from issues of the soul. We ask our friends, "how are you" and we're satisfied when they shruggingly say "I'm alright," but in reality they're falling a part and we never take the time to love them further. As a nation we've completely abandoned God and yet, in times of tragedy He is often the first to blame. The issue with our country begins with an issue of the soul and the complete abandonment of the love and leadership only found in Jesus Christ. Evil will always prevail when the love of Christ does not. So the PRIMARY issue with our country is not about gun control or public policy, it's not about psychological disorders or a mental health epidemic, it's not about the economy or who's in office...it's about the absence and complete disregard for The Lord. It's about turning away from the one who can deliver us from evil. I pray for these families and those deeply affected by this evil tragedy. And I pray for this nation to turn to God.
Yes, we may be a violent society, but the MUCH larger problem is the lack of parenting AND the HUGE number of people who basically just reproduce - they do not have an education, skills, jobs, or anything remotely good to offer as a parent. Fix this problem and many other problems will fix themselves!
There wasn't a lack of parenting on Mrs. Lanza's part. She did her best, and so did her ex-husband. You can't just sit there and lay the blame on "lack of parenting". It shows how much ignorance is being spread out in America, where it's all about getting kneejerking reactions and not carefully thought out and educated opinions based on factual evidence.
Our problem now is how to deal with the psychological fallout from this, taken in a proper direction.
Enough with the stories... We know
the kids need to be buried... I KNOW IT SELLS YOUR STUPID A$$ NEWSPAPERS....
AND PUTS MONEY IN YOUR POCKET... BUT ENOUGH... Give the families peace and
dignity by going away... they are grieving before Christmas... packages
purchased for dead children UNDER CHRISTMAS TREES... WE KNOW... ENOUGH...
Reporters are as bad as the shooter... ACTUALLY WORSE... He was sick in the
head... REPORTERS SUPPOSDLY SANE ARE JUST GHOOLS PROFITING OFF SOMEONE ELSES
MISFORTUNE...
If it bleeds, it leads...............
RIP all of you. all of connecticut and the USA mourns for you and your families.
I live in Goodyear Az. far away from the horrific events of Dec. 14th, and i can't even imagine the pain you all are feeling but my tears are flowing for your loss, you are not alone, and i wish i could do more but all i know how to do is pray for all of the families of the victims,
I hope the city of Sandy Hook, burn down the school, so those children wont ever have to go there again they will never feel safe in that building, after it is gone build a memorial to the little children that lost their life's.
I live in Pearce, AZ, not far from where Robert Krenz was murdered by a Mexican national back in 2010. No matter where we live, violent death won't be far from us.
To all the parents today and going forward who will bury their child, I wish you
peace. I can't begin to imagine your hurt and pain, it is just unfathomable.
I wish you peace!
For all the others who will bury their adult loved ones, I wish you peace!
All the horrible stories of adults killing other adults or horrifically, killing children have their root in the Supreme Court's decision to take the Bible out of school and the next year, prayer. The next decade saw abortion become legal across the land and people becoming more interested in whales or eagles than they are unborn children, created in the image of a loving Father in heaven.
WHERE HAS THE CHURCH BEEN THROUGH ALL THIS???
We can trace the decisions made by the Supreme Court back to Charles Darwin, and his "Origin of the Species". When Darwin postulated that people evolved out of the primordial ooze, he undercut the main tenet of Christianity that says we are created in the image of a loving God, Yahweh.
When people feel they have no worth, no hope or love from anyone, this is what they do: they turn their anger on innocent people and we are left to try to put the pieces back together. Sadly, they will never fit again.
No to mention our obsession with violence and guns as portrayed in the movies, and a flood of guns, including those meant for combat, freely accessible to anyone with a mental problem.
As far as Darwin, recognizing that we are descendents from animals, doesn't mean we need to act lke animals. It's precisely our superior intelligence that gives us the ability to overcome our animal impulses.
Recognizing what science teaches us doesn't mean turning back on our christian values. Both can coexist.
I recently passed my anatomy classes... and one thought overall struck me as profound.
With all the intricacies of the human body, there was no way that this happened by accident.
Seeing how things happening within a pregnant woman, from zygote to an embryo, with comparison with how an embryo within an chicken egg was similar, made me think that we were created with evolution used as being key to how we are today. But I'm not going to get into a creationist vs evolutionist argument, for I feel that our Lord used both to get us here, end of story.
However, the Supreme Court didn't use Darwinian theory as their base for reasoning. That's an assumption you're making because you've never fully researched into why the Supreme Court made those decisions about keeping the church and state completely separate and for abortions through Roe vs. Wade. I've seen reasons why these things are necessary (though not liked), but I'm not on here to spark an abortion debate either.
Our churches have always been here, and they shouldn't be involved in politics behind the pulpit. I for one don't like being told who to vote for from someone who's more concerned with his own image and outlook than being a representative of the Lord who sticks to one thing only: Worship of Jesus Christ our Savior. I would rather see a man of the cloth who does his best following what Christ asked us to do and be that shepherd, than a man who fakes the cloth in order to fuel his greed for money, power, fame, and all the pleasures that come with it. It's that last point right there that I want that separation to stay, and everyone here should realize that our Lord is above politics. So should we.
Thank God we have a president like Obama he is fixing to take care of this gun problem america has. Let the little boys who dont want to give the guns up start crying now. You go Obama! The civilized adults are behind you and the hillbillys will just have to learn to live with it.NO MORE GUNS! Time to change the out dated constitution! Its not the 17 hundreds anymore! People said Lincoln couldnt get done what he did,but he did and the country is better for it.Show the country you have a back bone and do what is BEST for the country.Obama! Obama! He the man!
Obama cant fix the economy what makes you think he has a chance to fix this?
Guns have never killed a person. It takes someone with intent and the means to load it and fire it. Put the people who kill others in jail and let the law abiding people have their guns.
Country Girl, Guns don't kill people. They just make it a lot easier.
I don't blame the unstable individual who's brought up to worship guns. I blame the people who sell the guns, and the zealots who resist gun control on some delusion about freedom.
What's so free about a country where your kindergarten teachers needs to be packing?