VICTIMS OF MASS SHOOTING LAID TO REST
Funerals begin as community mourns its dead
In the quiet of a hilltop community cemetery and under a grey misty sky, six-year-old Jack Pinto was buried Monday after a solemn funeral ceremony attended by family, friends and his wrestling and baseball teammates.
A sunny little boy with a big smile who loved sports and, as one friend said, “the rough stuff,” Jack was among the first of the 20 victims of the Sandy Hook School massacre to be buried.
Noah Pozner, 6, was also buried at a separate ceremony. His twin sister, Arielle, who also attended Sandy Hook Elementary School, survived the mass shooting.
In the eulogy, Noah’s uncle Alexis Haller, of Woodinville, Wash., said Noah “loved animals, video games and Mario Brothers. He was already a very good reader, and had just bought a Ninjago book at a book fair that he was really excited about reading. He was also very excited about going to a birthday party he had been invited to. It was to take place on Saturday, Dec. 15.”
Mourners said Jack Pinto was a lover of sport so it seemed fitting that his grave in the Newtown Community Cemetery overlooked a park with its small pond, baseball fields and his native city.
For many mourners, the ceremony, held in a white, clapboard funeral home on Main Street in downtown Newtown, brought home the terrible suffering and heartbreak that suddenly struck this community of 27,000 people and the families of the 27 people killed Friday morning by gunman Adam Lanza, 20.
About 25 of Jack’s former wrestling teammates and friends attended his funeral, some wearing their Newtown Wrestling sweatshirts. They each brought a wrestling medal, which they gave to Jack’s grandmother on the understanding that it would be put into Jack’s coffin.
“We just gave him medals so he can show them off up in heaven and show everybody how great of a wrestler he was,” Jeff Wellman, 13, said.
Jeff said that after he injured himself in August, his coach asked him to help train the younger wrestlers, which was how he got to know Jack Pinto.
“He was the most disciplined wrestler I have ever seen and he was always giving 100 per cent effort,” Jeff said after the funeral. “I just can’t say a bad thing about him. An excellent person.”
Jeff’s voice was strong and confident as he fielded reporters’ questions, but when he was asked about the atmosphere inside the funeral home, he became emotional.
“We’re broken,” he said as his voice choked up.
“It’s horrible. Unfortunately there’s going to be a lot more.”
With Jack Pinto and Noah Pozner’s funerals, the community of Newtown appeared to be regaining a certain level of normalcy.
People went back to work. Stores reopened.
But as Caren Wellman said: “Newtown is forever changed.”
The remaining funerals will be held throughout the week.