‘All she had to offer world was love’
Alyssa Alhadeff, one of the 17 people killed in the Parkland shooting, was warmly remembered by her family, friends and the community during her funeral Friday.
The 14-year-old Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student was described as a go-getter and a great soccer player. She took advanced classes and was destined for law school. Anything she set her mind to, she did.
About 400 people attended her funeral and burial at Star of David Memorial Gardens Cemetery and Funeral Chapel in North Lauderdale.
The crowd spilled out to the sidewalk from a packed sanctuary. Those outside might not have been able to hear the service. They stayed silent out of respect. Most walked over to the burial site after the service.
In a Facebook post after the school shooting, Alyssa’s mother, Lori Alhadeff, remembered her as a talented soccer player who was smart, had an amazing personality, was a great creative writer, and “all she had to offer the world was love.”
“I would have taken a bullet for her myself,” she said at the funeral, and asked all her friends to stay in touch.
One teen brought a poster, filled with photos of Alyssa and her family and friends, showing Alyssa’s sense of humor.
One story was told about the time she and her friends were at a Target store and accidentally knocked down a display. That brought laughter from the crowd, family friend Brian Gately said.
“Honor her legacy with positive actions and be her voice,” Rabbi Shuey Biston, of the Chabad of Parkland, told the crowd.
People leaving the funeral called her “a great kid” and “beautiful.”
Her image was on the program the funeral home gave to mourners. It said Alyssa was born in Queens, N.Y., on May 1, 2003. It also had the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer of mourning.