TRAGIC FAREWELL
Limo-crash funeral
In the months since the Rev. Robert DeMartinis officiated at the wedding of Amy and Axel Steenberg, he noticed that a sign they made for the service remained at the church.
The pastor held up the hand-painted sign during his emotional homily Saturday at the funeral for Amy, Axel, her three sisters and Axel’s brother, all victims of a tragic limousine crash that claimed 20 lives last week. “A picture of a camera with a red cross through it,” he said. “It said, ‘Please no pictures, we suggest that you live in the moment.’
“They are asking you and me to do that today,” DeMartinis continued. “As difficult as it may be, we must live in the present moment because that’s what they would want us to do. We will always hurt, tears will always come, but we must live right now in the present moment.”
More than 650 mourners packed the pews of St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church in Amsterdam, NY, where the sisters grew up.
“The question that is in the heart of so many is, ‘Why?’ ” DeMartinis said. “Why, one week ago, this tragedy had to occur? Why did these 20 individuals have to be taken from us so quickly and so unexpectedly? We want to know why.”
He referred to a story about Mother Teresa, in which she said she never asks why because there may never be an answer. Instead, she would ask, “Who?”
“Who do we put our faith in? Who do we put our trust in?” Her answer was God. “And that is what all my brothers and sisters are doing here this afternoon,” DeMartinis said.
Toward the end of the Mass, a member of each family was asked to sign a book of remembrance and gestured to the photos of each victim on the altar.
“I encourage you to continue to look at these photos,” DeMartinis said. “As long as you and I have memory and are still able to tell their stories, even if it’s for a few brief minutes, we bring our beloved back again.”
Although eight urns, accompanied by photos of the victims, were symbolically placed on the communion rail, three of the sisters actually share an urn with their husbands, according to Peter Rose, funeral director at the Betz Rossi, Bellinger & Stewart Funeral Home.
In addition to Amy, 30, and Axel, the ashes of her sister, Mary King, 33, and her husband Robert Dyson, 34, were combined, as were those of Abigail King, 34, and her husband, Adam Jackson, 34.
A fourth sister, Allison, 31, and Rich Steenberg, 34, who served as his brother’s best man at the couple’s wedding, were also mourned. The family members were among 17 passengers killed Oct. 6 when their stretch limousine crashed in Schoharie on the way to a 30th birthday celebration for Amy. The vehicle’s driver and two pedestrians also died.