A mournful silence hung over Nickel Mines in Pennsylvania yesterday as four of the five victims of Monday's horrific Amish school shooting were laid to rest.
The silence was broken only by the rattling of the horse-drawn buggies that streamed through the township bringing relatives and friends to the homes of the victims where the simple and private funerals took place.
Naomi Rose Ebersol, seven, Marian Fisher, 13, sisters Mary Liz Miller, eight, and Lena Miller, seven, were all laid to rest Thursday at a hilltop cemetery in Nickel Mines after they died in Monday's shooting rampage by milk lorry driver Charles Carl Roberts IV.
Each girl was buried in a plain pine coffin, using no metal in accordance with the Amish belief that all human remains should return to dust.
Each was dressed by female relatives in plain white dresses and laid out at home in open caskets as mourners arrived to pay respects, said Rita Rhodes, a local midwife who delivered two of the victims.
The funeral of the final victim, Anna Mae Stoltzfus, 12, will take place today as doctors switched off a sixth girl's life support machine so she could be taken home to die her family by her side.
-
Sarah Mullally has reasons to be cheerful after her first Synod but there are storms ahead
-
Christian and family groups denounce trans schools guidance
-
Church leader sees challenges and opportunities as research suggests openness to Christianity in the UK
-
Fewer than 1 in 3 churchgoers read the Bible daily
News
-
Church of England winds down Living in Love and Faith as deep divisions remain over same-sex blessings
-
2,000-year-old 'Pilgrim's Path' opens in Jerusalem
-
Turkey taken to task over Christians banned from the country
-
Christian nurse 'alarmed' after Phillipson says guidance on single-sex spaces will not apply to NHS
-
New research sheds light on why women are more religious than men
-
West has 'repeatedly failed Assyrian Christians'
Most Popular
News
God is the remedy for grief
To have loved deeply and to have been loved in return is one of life’s greatest gifts. But when that love is taken away, grief follows. And grief, in many ways, never fully leaves.
What does new school trans guidance mean for Scotland?
Although the draft guidance applies only to schools in England, there are ramifications for Scotland too.
Why is 1 Corinthians 13 often read at weddings?
St Paul wrote a timeless definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13, known as the “love chapter”, which is one of the most famous chapters in the Bible and is often read at weddings. This is the story …
Christian and family groups denounce trans schools guidance
While the guidance gets some things right, it still permits social transitioning.