No words...

Chad and I attended the funerals for the two fallen firefighters yesterday (Thursday 3/13/08). 4000 people were expected. We arrived nearly 2 hours early and were lucky enough to have a seat in the chapel. Though we wer at the back and couldn't see anything. The moving stories and emotional songs were... difficult. The sanctuary was packed with two rows of standing firefighters on each side of the chapel, not to mention every seat filled. There was an 'overflow' area where about 1800 were seated with a live feed TV. Every minute of this service was so well planned. We did not witness the funeral procesion as we were already seated, but from news accounts there were firefighters and citizens lined along the streets from downtown to Catawba. I can't even begin to tell how emotional this was, more overwhelming were the amount of people. At one point after the service we were all lined up outside as the placed the bodies back on the firetrucks to take them to the grave site. I looked and around and there were firefighters as far as I could see. We saw people from as far away as New York City and Sarasota, FL. Amazing! I took these pictures shortly after the bodies were placed on the truck, on their way to the site... I was standing in the very front..


The next several photos were taken in the procession. This is the line of people after the 100 or so firetrucks. It was about 3 miles from Catawba to the site. The trucks were already at the grave site.
These people were amazing. Their signs were so heart-felt. I unsuccessfully tried to get the photos of the little boy (probably 18 months of so, waving his flag... and the group of elementary school kids standing silently with their hand on their hearts.)

These pictures are from the grave- site. Again, it is impossible to say how amazing this was. So many people and so many firetrucks

This is one of my favorite pictures from yesterday. The men rode from the funeral home to Catawba like this and then from Catawba to the site. If you look closesly under the flag the casket is designed with fire fighter scenes. I got one pictures but is was blurry. The designs were amazing

In the above picture you can see all of the 'white hats'. The Captains and chiefs were these.. This is Chad and fellow Charlotte firefighter Josh. They both work at station 10 on 'b' shift. Surprisingly Josh and his wife were also married at Catawba.






This is Justin's....

Too young to die....