Friends at St Bede’s Episcopal Church

Diane Spath, friend, teacher to Laine, and mother to Caroline, Laine’s friend.  “I just signed our family up for the church retreat and it had me thinking so much about last year’s retreat when Laine and Caroline first became friends.  Laine took the lead and held Caroline’s hand and asked if she wanted to play family.  From that moment onward they were inseperable for the rest of the weekend and holed up on the top bunk of the bed playing mommy and baby.  Laine was the mommy and I’ll never forget that she put on her high mommy voice and kept saying “you have to go to bed, honey, ok, honey?”  Those are sweet memories of your sweet girl.  We are going to the retreat again this year, and it will be incredibly sad to not have Laine there.  All of us will be thinking of her and missing her.  Know that not one day passes that we don’t think of Laine.  Her picture hangs in Caroline’s room.”  “Dear Anna and Mathai, I just had to write to tell you how much it meant to us to receive that beautiful card of Laine.  Seeing her lovely face in that photo, all decked out in hot pink and looking so sweet and happy, just took my breath away.  It made my heart ache and the same time as it made me so happy to see her again.  We’ve had a picture of Laine in Caroline’s room of the two of them playing on the bunk bed together at Bishop’s Ranch.  I’ve framed the new photo card and it sits on Caroline’s dresser and we talk about her almost every day.  Carrie asks me if she is really dead, and I have to tell her that she is.  Then she asks if she is coming back, and I have to tell her that she’s not, but we can think about her and her spirt may come and be with us sometimes.  Laine is still, and will always be, very much in our hearts. Anna, I will be thinking of you this Sunday [Mother’s Day, 2014], with love and prayerful support.”

Jack Wenstrand, our friend.  “The magnitude of your loss is beyond comprehension. I am in shock.  She was so loved, and we rejoiced in her happy voice in church, and on occasion, in our home.   We are praying for her soul, and for your family.   How can an angel be taken from our midst like this?”

Claire Lawrence, Laine’s Teacher. “Laine was the youngest child in my Sunday School class, but easily one of the biggest personalities. Despite not following some of our more complex discussion questions, she believed unquestionably in God and in Heaven and knew that her sister Mia was there. Her world was full of joy and fun; she was full of stories of a Legoland visit or the latest exploits of her My Little Ponies. Laine was so full of love and such a cuddly hugger that it was impossible to turn your back on her for a second; one Sunday in the Fall, she was having a tough day and I spent the entire Sunday school class just holding her. I didn’t want to put her down for a second no matter how tired my arms were.   On one of the last Sundays I saw her, Laine was the only attendee in class. I decided to let Laine dictate what she wanted to do, so we spent the 45 minutes basically drawing cupcakes. Laine decorated them with gobs and gobs of glitter; piles that soaked through the paper and weren’t dry by the next week. It may not have been a relevant Sunday School lesson, but I hope it just showed Laine how important she was and how much I treasured her view of the world and of her place in God’s eyes. She may have only had six years on this Earth, but she touched everyone’s hearts and will never be forgotten.  Below is one of Laine’s pictures: it is of God blessing a chicken, her chicken Fluffy.”