Copyright 2006 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
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By MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA
The Chicago Sun-Times (Illinois)
Tragedy begat tragedy at a South Side funeral Tuesday.
A grandmother overcome by the grief of saying goodbye to her granddaughter and three other children who were killed in a fire last week suffered a heart attack during the wake and died, deepening one South Side family’s loss.
“It’s the kind of thing that is unimaginable, to be with this family in the worst possible time of their loss and then to have it compounded with the loss of a grandmother on the very same day,” said the Rev. Alan Ragland, pastor of Third Baptist Church, 1551 W. 95th St., where the 10 a.m. wake and 11 a.m. funeral services were held for the four children.
WOMAN COLLAPSES DURING WAKE
Verna Glenn, grandmother of 6-year-old fire victim Marlese Glenn, collapsed during the wake for Glenn, Glenn’s sister LaShawn Harris, 2; and their cousins, Dontrell Harvest, 8, and Tykia Harvest, 9.
“This is just the most tragic kind of day. God give me strength to make it through,” said the children’s other grandmother, Lillie Harris, whose home in the 5400 block of South Honore caught fire March 29. Investigators blamed an electrical problem on the home’s rear porch -- near where the four cousins were sleeping.
More than 500 people had filled the church Tuesday to say goodbye, including strangers moved by the overwhelming tragedy and some of the firefighters who had tried to save the four children.
But only 15 minutes into the wake, Glenn, 59, of the 5400 block of South Wood, slumped over in the second row of pews before the four small, white, closed coffins at the front of the church, family, friends and fire officials said.
“The family is just devastated,” said Kirk Williams of Aftermath Relief, Inc., which arranged Tuesday’s funeral, soliciting donations of everything from the services of Brookins Funeral Home to the church, flowers and limousines.
“Ms. Glenn had a 6-year-old granddaughter she came to say goodbye to, and was overcome,” he said.
Glenn was taken to the church vestibule in a wheelchair, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation was attempted before paramedics arrived. She was taken to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, where she was pronounced dead.
EMOTIONAL SERVICE STIRS MANY
Family members who had left the services to attend to Glenn later returned to inform Lillie Harris that Glenn had died.
“The other grandmother began crying, because that was her best friend,” Williams said.
Paramedics also treated and transported several others at the overwhelmingly emotional funeral, fire officials said.
“We had a pregnant woman complaining of shortness of breath, and another woman who was asthmatic, who were also transported to Little Company of Mary,” said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. “And there were several other people who were treated on the scene but not transported, about a half dozen people.”