One week after the tragedy, Pastor Philips Mompremier addressed a standing room only crowd and extolled the virtues of a little girl whose life ended too soon.
Standing on the podium, behind the white casket that held Ruebensa Shakinah "Hally" Rozin, and underneath a video screen displaying her images, Mompremier talked about how a short life can mean so much to so many.
"You don't have to be here many years to touch many lives," Mompremier said in a booming voice to the crowd that filled the Bethanie Seventh-day Adventist Haitian Church on Sunday to say goodbye to Hally.
Hally, who would have turned 4 in December, died last Sunday in a Nissan Pathfinder parked in the hot sun in the parking lot of another house of worship, the Ebenezer Baptist Haitian Church. She was left there accidentally by her mother Melissa Rozin's cousin. The family has asked that no charges be brought against the cousin.
Hundreds turned out to send Hally off. Men in suits and women in church crowns filled the pews and aisles as relatives, teachers and clergy eulogized a charismatic child who was fluent in three languages - English, French and Creole - and who beseeched her mother for Bible stories every night.
One church member, Ruth Lubin, recalled how Hally's presence lit up any room she was in and how she brought joy wherever she was.
A cousin and godfather, Evins Trajean, asked those gathered to think about Hally and how precious life is.
"Today is all you have," said Trajean. "Tomorrow isn't promised."
After Mompremier's fiery sermon in French, a procession - accompanied by church member Stephanie Pierre's rendition of "Amazing Grace" - led the white casket out to a waiting hearse.
Struggling to keep up, Melissa Rozin, who was about to bury her oldest child at the Garden of Memories Cemetery, wailed loudly.
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