Post by Angela on Aug 17, 2009 12:19:00 GMT -5
Sadie Hampton, Fannie Lawson's best friend described for her daughter yesterday the funeral she attended for the Lawson family. Here is the gist of what she said:
There is virtually no way to describe the scene that day at Browder Cemetery to anyone who was not there in person to witness it. She went on to say that the funeral for Charlie Lawson and his family was not the kind of organized event that funerals are today. No select group of men were assigned to be pallbearers. That when the hearses delivered the caskets with the bodies of the deceased to the Cemetery about 30 men just walked up and several men each just took hold of each coffin and carried them over to the massive grave that had been dug and lined them up side by side. She said that most of the men who did so are in the group of men surrounding the coffins that we have all seen in the photograph of those white coffins lined up there. She said the sheer size of that massive hole in the ground was a terrible sight to look upon and the pain of seeing those seven coffins lined up side by side, each one containing the body of someone you knew and loved was near to almost more than one could bear, especially knowing how they had died. She then described how oppressive being sandwiched in between the bodies of thousands of people, alot of them strangers felt like. The smell was horrible she said, the rush of people pressing up against you while shoving you about in order to see better was made her want to scream and run away butthat she was trapped among them with no way to get out. Looking up and seeing men and young boys in the top of the trees in order to see the bodies better was as scary a sight as any nightmare she'd ever had. The whole ordeal of the murders, the funeral, the press, and the long aftermath of trying to cope and understand and carry on with their lives afterwards was just terrible. After telling me all of this I was too stunned to know how to respond or what to say. Sadie Hampton now close to 100 years of age, has lived with the terrible memories of that Christmas Day and the murders of 8 people she knew and loved for over 75 years now. I can't imagine carrying the memories of something that horrible around in my mind for even one day. God bless this small, gentle, now frail lady named Sadie Stephens Hampton.
There is virtually no way to describe the scene that day at Browder Cemetery to anyone who was not there in person to witness it. She went on to say that the funeral for Charlie Lawson and his family was not the kind of organized event that funerals are today. No select group of men were assigned to be pallbearers. That when the hearses delivered the caskets with the bodies of the deceased to the Cemetery about 30 men just walked up and several men each just took hold of each coffin and carried them over to the massive grave that had been dug and lined them up side by side. She said that most of the men who did so are in the group of men surrounding the coffins that we have all seen in the photograph of those white coffins lined up there. She said the sheer size of that massive hole in the ground was a terrible sight to look upon and the pain of seeing those seven coffins lined up side by side, each one containing the body of someone you knew and loved was near to almost more than one could bear, especially knowing how they had died. She then described how oppressive being sandwiched in between the bodies of thousands of people, alot of them strangers felt like. The smell was horrible she said, the rush of people pressing up against you while shoving you about in order to see better was made her want to scream and run away butthat she was trapped among them with no way to get out. Looking up and seeing men and young boys in the top of the trees in order to see the bodies better was as scary a sight as any nightmare she'd ever had. The whole ordeal of the murders, the funeral, the press, and the long aftermath of trying to cope and understand and carry on with their lives afterwards was just terrible. After telling me all of this I was too stunned to know how to respond or what to say. Sadie Hampton now close to 100 years of age, has lived with the terrible memories of that Christmas Day and the murders of 8 people she knew and loved for over 75 years now. I can't imagine carrying the memories of something that horrible around in my mind for even one day. God bless this small, gentle, now frail lady named Sadie Stephens Hampton.
