Funerals for Newtown’s children begin
Conn. town in mourning
NEWTOWN, Conn. — 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 young 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 School, survived the mass shooting.
In the eulogy, Noah’s uncle Alexis Haller, of Woodinville, Wash., said Noah “loved animals, video games and Mario Bros. 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.”
Jeff ’s brother Luke, 10, said he was a football teammate of Jack’s older brother. “Jack wasn’t old enough to play, but he wanted to play football. He was just really enthusiastic about playing because he liked to be rough and stuff.”
He said Jack often talked about his favourite football player, Victor Cruz, a wide receiver with the New York Giants. Cruz put Jack Pinto’s name on his cleats and his gloves during Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons as a tribute to Jack. He wrote “Jack Pinto My Hero” and “R.I.P Jack Pinto.”
Irv Trager, 52, and his wife, Andrea, came to the funeral because Irv works with Jack Pinto’s father, Dean, at Morgan Stanley and because they are neighbours in Newtown.
Trager said this was the first time he had seen his colleague since Friday’s massacre. He said he knew the teachers and many of the children at Sandy Hook School. “They are in our neighbourhood, so it’s close to home,” he said.
“(Dean Pinto) was in shock,” he said. “Losing a child is hard to fathom. So I just hugged him and told him that if there was anything he needed, that I would be thinking about him and he’s in our prayers.”
He said that the tragedy has brought the community together more than ever before. “It was always a tight community, but seeing the suffering and having to group together really makes us stronger,” he said outside the funeral home. “I think everybody is in shock. I just feel for the families. It is unfathomable what has happened here.”