Hundreds gather to mourn 7 Clouse children killed in farmhouse fire

ELLIOTSBURG, Pa. - Hundreds of mourners, many of them Amish and Mennonite, gathered here to remember the seven young children who perished in a fire that swept through their farmhouse a week ago.

Family members and religious leaders recalled the brief lives of the Clouse children, ages nine months to 11 years. Side by side, along the wall of the Perry County Mennonite Reception Center, were seven small white caskets.

Fears of a protest by a fundamentalist sect from Kansas went unrealized when members of the Westboro Baptist Church did not show up. Last week, when the sect labeled the parents "God-less" and vowed to protest at the funeral, hundreds of people volunteered to shield mourners from pickets if need be.

"Thankfully, they didn't come," said Doran Wray, senior pastor of Church of the Living Christ in Loysville, where the Clouse family worshipped and the children attended weekly Bible classes.

Inside the Mennonite center, a slide show offered images of the children playing at the beach, enjoying an amusement park visit, and washing the family dog. People from this central Pennsylvania community packed the hall and lined up to hug the grieving parents, Jannelle and Ted Clouse. Some local farmers came in work boots and blue jeans.

Other mourners rode miles to be here. Jannelle Clouse was raised a Mennonite, and Amish and Mennonite families came from Lancaster County and as far away as Ohio, the men in black collarless jackets, the women in black cloaks and frocks, their little girls in gingham. By the time the services began, the coat rack of the Mennonite center was piled high with black bonnets and hats.

During the service, Wray told the family the grief we "feel in our bones" would take time to heal. But he said, "In time, we will sing again."

Adam Williams, associate pastor of Church of the Living Christ, acknowledged the loss of normalcy in the Clouses' lives, but urged them to find hope again. He praised the outpouring of support, and asked the community to erect a "hedge of protection" around the young heart of Leigha, the 3-year-old daughter who survived the fire.

"When one hurts, we all hurt, and we do something about it," Williams said. "You showed me what it means to love your neighbor."

As hundreds listened and wept, Betty Clouse stood up and remembered her grandchildren:

Christina, 11, the reader, the artist, the athletic one who loved horses;

Isabelle, 9, "Izzy . . . my helper girl," with chubby cheeks and beautiful hair;

Brady, 7, the lone boy, who had expressive eyes and liked fishing;

Hannah, 6, "the little glamour girl" who found joy in singing;

Heidi, 4, the rough-and-tumbler one who loved dogs;

Miranda, 2, nicknamed "Brownie" by her father, for her brown hair;

and Samantha, 9 months, a happy baby, named after a grandparent.

Their aunt, Carolyn Albright, told mourners that the children possessed no fancy things, but enjoyed the "simple pleasures" of farm life and the outdoors.

The children died in a fire of still-undetermined origins last Tuesday night as their mother Jannelle milked cows in the barn 100 feet away and their father Ted, a milk truck driver, made his rounds to neighboring dairies. Leigha escaped and ran to the barn to find her mother.

The charred remains of the century-old farmhouse were bulldozed several days ago, and the site is being prepared for a foundation for a new house for the family.

The pastor, Wray, described Janelle and Ted Clouse as "crushed" but coping as best they could. He said after the service, "They will not be in a state called normal for quite some time."

Donations for the family, along with sympathy calls and e-mails, have flooded in from as far away as Australia. Building materials, clothing, caskets, even the digging of graves - all were donated.

After the service, hundreds of cars and the distinctive black vans of the Mennonites followed three hearses to a cemetery by the church.

Five pallbearers carried the casket of Christina, the oldest. Just two men carried each of the six smaller caskets.