Posted by Cheryl Ross on 4/20/2008, 5:43 am, in reply to "Portsmouth Police need your help"
76.5.16.188
PORTSMOUTH - At a memorial service marked by laughter and tears Saturday, family and friends packed Pinecrest Baptist Church to remember 16-year-old Meghan Landowski not for how she died but for how she lived. They recalled her belief in God, her constant smile and her friendliness. They remembered her as a dance and karate student, and, on an overhead screen, watched flashing images of her as a baby, as an older child sitting in Santa’s lap, and as a playful teenager.
Among about 500 mourners, a dance teacher recalled with laughter Meghan doing cartwheels in class. Since her slaying April 10, students have upheld that tradition. “The girls have been cartwheeling for Meghan ever since this happened,” the teacher said.
During the service, a candle burned bright, a symbol of Meghan’s “eternal soul,” said the Rev. Tom Potter, the church’s senior pastor. He wore a pink tie in honor of the slain Woodrow Wilson High School student, who was found dead in her family’s home. “She’s the only one who could get this man to wear pink,” Potter later said.
Police are calling Meghan’s case a homicide, and as of late last week officials had not released a cause of death. Potter assured mourners that authorities are “putting everything that they have into this investigation” and “that justice will be done.” “Whoever committed this crime should be shaking in their shoes and looking over their shoulder,” he said.
But the number of friends, neighbors and loved ones attending Saturday’s service was a sign that God already was having his day, Potter told mourners. He called the memorial a day of love, hope and salvation. A woman who had met Meghan only once stood and told those who had gathered that, for Meghan, “Jesus Christ became real.” “She doesn’t even remember any of these things that happened,” the woman said of Meghan’s death. “God gave her a refuge place.”
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