'She's making dresses in heaven'
2008-02-15 14:48
Johannesburg - South Africans ought to be angry at the violent and senseless loss of precious lives affecting the country, Father Owen Franklin told mourners at the funeral of slain schoolgirl Emily Williams on Friday.
The 12-year-old was killed by a bullet fired in a standoff between robbers and security guards at a house in Fairland, Johannesburg, on Tuesday morning.
Her death had devastated her family "beyond belief", her grieving parents Roger and Toni Williams wrote in a tribute to their child.
Their words were read to hundreds of mourners - including the child's schoolmates - during her funeral service at the St Michael's Anglican Church, in Bryanston, on Friday.
With the church packed to overflowing, many of those paying their last respects had to listen to the service from seats in its gardens.
"We will carry you and your beliefs in our hearts forever," the Williams' couple pledged to their daughter amid a profusion of the pink tributes they had asked the country to wear in her memory.
Some carried roses, some wore them on their lapels or pink blouses, others bore pink scarves, handbags or ribbons.
An emotional goodbye
Reading from a personal narrative penned by Emily earlier this month, her mother told the congregation she had seen herself as an industrious, determined, outgoing and adventurous non-conformist.
Sometimes, she had felt "like a salmon swimming upstream".
She had hoped to one day be a fashion-designer living in a penthouse in New York. "No doubt she's already doing dresses for the angels in heaven," her mother said.
Trinity House Preparatory School, where Emily was a Grade Seven pupil, closed early on Friday to enable staff and her classmates to attend the funeral.
She was on her way to school in her mother's bronze BMW X3 with her 10-year-old sister Sophie and two other pupils when they stopped to pick up classmate Alison Saunders at 07:00 on Tuesday.
Toni Williams phoned for help when a strange man came out of the house in response to her hooting.
An hour earlier, robbers had attacked the Saunders family, tying up Alison, her father, grandmother and their domestic worker.
The robbers opened fire when the security guards arrived.
Emily was "one of the most exceptional people we have ever met," the Williams' wrote in their tribute, adding they were proud to have had her as their daughter.
Her life had been ended "needlessly" by that "fateful bullet," they said.
Although so young, she had been determined and steadfast in her beliefs and had overcome obstacles with a maturity beyond her years.
Her concern, care, compassion, sense of humour and larger-than-life attitude would be sorely missed, and its absence would leave the world a poorer place.
The school plans to hold its own memorial for the child in the school hall in Randpark Ridge on Monday.
- SAPA