Teary-eyed funerals for Pangyo concert victims

The black mourning dragged along the ground wet with rain. "When will daddy wake up?" asked a girl to her grandfather who looked at her some time in silence. The child, with eyes wide open, looked alternately at her mother and grandfather whose faces were red and trembling, and then started playing with her sister. The children were sending their father to heaven but they didn`t know that.

At 7 a.m. Monday, at a funeral hall in Yongin City, Gyeonggi Province, two girls, six and three years old each, and a five-year-old son sent their father to heaven. The coffin was born out as some 50 people including his family, friends and colleagues from work attended. When the coffin appeared, the mother of the deceased who was following his portrait kept on weeping. Full of weeping sound, no one said anything until the wife said in a low voice, "Darling, how am I supposed to live without you." The sky was dark and rain was falling hard.

The same day at 10 a.m. in front of Seongnam Central Hospital in Gyeonggi Province held a coffin bearing ceremony for a 39-year-old woman. When the coffin was taken into the funeral car, her mother started to beat her breast with her fist. She spat out "Oh, oh," which was barely heard. Standing next to the funeral car, the father of the deceased stamped his feet saying, "My poor little thing..."

An hour later at the same site, a coffin bearing ceremony was also held for a 27-year-old woman, who was the eldest of four children. Her younger sisters and brother followed her portrait in silence. Her brother was trying to fight back tears as he walked holding the portrait of his sister smiling. They had promised not to cry in sending their sister to heaven. Some 10 people joined the ceremony and no one spoke. The mother of the deceased stared at the coffin for some time and got on board the funeral car with his husband.

One coffin bearing ceremony was held Sunday and six others on Monday at four funeral halls in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The ceremony for the remaining nine victims will be held Tuesday after the accident response headquarters and the bereaved family consultation group agree on compensation on Monday. It is unprecedented to complete the funeral procedure in just five days since an accident breaks out. "We don`t want the accident to evolve into a national issue. We will hold the funeral regardless of compensation," Han Jae-chang, assistant administrator of the bereaved family consultation group, said, on Saturday, one day after the accident happened.