The bells of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church played "Amazing Grace" as the twin hearses led the funeral procession away Saturday.
Then, Delavan's noon siren wailed, as it does every day. Though it was a coincidence, it was as if the siren was the community's collective cry of grief over the loss of five innocents to senseless violence.
The funeral was for Ashley Huerta; her sister, Nicole McAffee, and Nicole's twin babies, Arie and Isaiah. The funeral for Vanessa Iverson, their friend and the fifth victim of last weekend's tragedy, was at the church Friday.
The Rev. Robert Rickman called the murders followed by suicide "a scene right out of Hades. This doesn't happen in our fair city of little Delavan. … This is of the devil; this is not of God."
Such evil, Rickman said, "is waiting around the corner like a lion, waiting for someone to devour."
But life and hope still shine in the midst of suffering and grief, he said.
"Thank God little Jasmine was spared," Rickman said, referring to Nicole's 20-month-old daughter, who survived her gunshot wound.
The sisters' extended family has the support of mourners not only in the church and community but also from those throughout the nation who have sent condolences and prayers, the minister noted.
He told the 120 or so people in the church to help the family.
"Let them know you are there for them, that you're praying for them," Rickman said.
Karen "Dee Dee" Sittler, an aunt of Nicole and Ashley, told the mourners:
"Ashley was the most dedicated person to her sister. We thought they should have been twins because they did everything together. The love they had for one another was amazing. They lived together. They raised a family together.
"We were never so proud of those girls as when they said they would have twins. We thought, 'How can they handle this?' But they did."
The flower-draped caskets of Nicole and Ashley each carried a second small wreath for the baby boys. Buried with each sister was one of Nicole's twin sons, Arie and Isaiah, because the sisters raised them together.
"I'm so proud to be their aunt. I'm so proud of what they've given us in 21 years," Sittler said. "I'm so blessed. I'm so grateful."
She vowed to keep a candle burning for her lost loved ones.
"I know your spirit will be with us always," Sittler said. "You will be in our hearts forever."
After the mourners in the church sang "Amazing Grace," a woman sitting with the sisters' relatives broke down. Two people braced her as she sobbed with her head in her hands, and a wheelchair was brought to carry her.
The moment seemed to serve as an example of what the minister and Delavan Mayor Mel Nieuwenhuis told the mourners: Help each other cope with the tragic loss.
"This terrible tragedy has reminded us all of how precious life is," Nieuwenhuis said. "I wish there was a magic pill that could just take it away. We as a community stand in support of you, all of you."
