NEWTOWN, Conn. — This community laid to rest on Saturday the last of the children killed in a schoolhouse massacre.
In a town devastated by violence, besieged by worldwide attention from the news media and struggling to move forward, the burial of Josephine Grace Gay, 7, brought to an end a bleak procession of funerals that began not long after Adam Lanza killed 20 children and 6 staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
“This has been a challenge for us,” Msgr. Robert E. Weiss said during his homily at Josephine’s funeral Mass at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church.
Funeral after funeral, wake after wake, he said, it had been faith, family and friendship that held the community together.
He recalled the terrible hours after the shooting stopped on Dec. 14, when he waited with families at the firehouse near the school, with parents clinging to the hope that their children had made it out unharmed.
At 3 p.m. that day, he said, Josephine’s parents were told that she had not survived.
“It does not make sense,” Monsignor Weiss said, adding that the children did not die in vain. “If these 20 cannot change the world, then no one can,” he said.
He added that it was now up to everyone to bring out the best in themselves and one another.
“You should be angry,” Monsignor Weiss said. “But don’t hold onto it.”
The shootings have resonated around the world, and have set off an intense national discussion on gun control, mental health and other issues.
That discussion continues, yet the focus here Saturday was not on questions of policy or new laws. It was on a first grader known to family and friends as Joey, who had turned 7 days before she was killed.
Her father, Bob Gay, noted that though she had autism and was unable to speak, “you don’t need words to say, ‘I love you.’ ”
Mr. Gay and Josephine’s mother, Michele Gay, shared with the congregation some of the “life lessons” they learned from their daughter.
“You can’t really appreciate a movie until you have watched it 300 times,” Ms. Gay said, before mentioning another lesson: “iPhones are not waterproof.”
Josephine’s father said that she had taught him not to “sweat the small stuff; it’s all small stuff.” And this: “Even the smallest of us can do great things.”
In a town that was plunged into unimaginable shock and sorrow a little more than a week before, there seemed to be a determination at the funeral to be upbeat. Many people wore purple, Josephine’s favorite color.
There were two other funerals for children killed at Sandy Hook on Saturday, both held outside of Newtown.
Ana Marquez-Greene, 6, was mourned at a private ceremony in Bloomfield, Conn. She was the daughter of the jazz saxophonist Jimmy Greene, who posted a short tribute to his daughter on his Facebook page.
“As much as she is needed here and missed by her mother, her brother and me, Ana beat us all to paradise,” he wrote the day after the shootings. “I love you, sweetie girl.”
Her mother, Nelba Marquez-Greene, in a statement, recalled her budding musical talent.
“In a musical family, her gift for melody, pitch and rhythm stood out remarkably,” she said.
In Ogden, Utah, Robbie and Alyssa Parker buried their 6-year-old daughter, Emilie.
Mr. Parker was one of the first parents of a child killed at the school to speak out publicly, at an emotional news conference one week ago.
Choking back tears, he vowed not to let what happened “turn into something that defines us, but something that inspires us to be better, to be more compassionate and more humble people.”
Those sentiments were echoed in the notes and posters left at memorials across Newtown.
The piles of stuffed animals and flowers and toys have grown each day, but there was a hope that with the final funeral, the people here could begin to grieve outside of the constant glare of media attention.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who had ordered all flags in the state to be flown at half-staff after the massacre, said it was time to raise them once again.
Newtown Mourns Last of Its Children Killed in Massacre
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Newtown Mourns Last of Its Children Killed in Massacre
