Ma’s ‘love letter’ at fire funeral
She’ll miss her little boy’s mischief, and the way — over and over, as toddlers do — he’d call to her, “Mommy!”
Mourners at the funeral for four of the five children and young adults who died in a house fire in Queens Village last month struggled against tears as they heard a “love letter” penned by the mother of the youngest victim, 2year-old Chayce Lipford.
“I’m going to miss letting you do anything you want,” wrote Chayce’s grieving mom Shanikqa Matthews, in a letter read aloud Saturday by a relative to the standing-room crowd at the Greater Bethel Ministries on Jamaica Avenue.
“I’m going to miss waking up in the middle of the night to get you juice,” read the mom’s poignant message.
“I’m going to miss you taking off your Pamper and running around naked . . . I can’t hear you say ‘Mommy’ a thousand times,” the mother wrote.
“I can’t tell you to pick up your toys. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m lost,” she told mourners, who included the Rev. Al Sharpton, Public Advocate Letitia James and Queens Borough President Melinda Katz.
“But you’re going to be taken care of in heaven,” the mom assured her boy.
The April 23 inferno quickly engulfed the 100year-old, wood-frame home on 208th Street.
Multiple neighbors had described seeing Chayce’s charred body carried out in the arms of a strickenlooking firefighter.
Chayce and all three of the other young victims buried Saturday were related.
The eldest was Destiny Dones, 20, described by relatives as wise and lovable.
“There can be no goodbyes for us — it’s too painful, dear,” her mother, Tamara Foxworth, wrote in her own goodbye, which was included in the funeral program.
“I’ll look for you among the stars.”
Dones died with her sister, competitive high school cheerleader Jada Foxworth, 16 — a “ray of sunshine” to her relatives, who noted that the girl had begun dancing even before she could walk.
“Missing you so much, daughter,” the mother wrote her second lost girl. “But now we find such comfort in memories of you.”
The fourth victim buried Saturday was Maurice Matthew, 10 — a “natural born singer” whose voice, as he led the children’s choir at his church, could bring listeners to tears.
Children from Maurice’s choir at the Tabernacle Community CME Church in nearby St. Albans sang him goodbye at the funeral.
The fifth victim of the fire was aspiring lawyer Melody Edwards, 17.
Melody, Jada’s best friend, was buried Wednesday.
A GoFundMe page has been set up for the families at https://www.gofundme.com/the-tragicfire-that-took-5-young-p
“Faith is not what you can have when everything goes your way,” Sharpton told the gathering.
“Faith is when it don’t make sense.”
Don’t call the service a funeral, Sharpton told the crowd. It’s a homecoming service, he said to applause, noting a theme echoed by many present.
“Celebration of life,” read large posters hung around the church.
As mourner Brenda Cuttis explained to The Post, “We as Christians believe in rejoicing.”