The rain never let up Sunday at the Earlham Church of Christ, where some 50 friends and family members gathered to honor the life of Sabrina Busch — later called Sabrina Ray — who dies in Perry May 12, 2017.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Phyllis Hendryx of Des Moines, Sabrina’s grandmother. “It doesn’t make any sense at all.”
Like Hendryx, Sabrina’s grandfather, Eugene “Bunny” Busch of rural Earlham, moved easily among the groups of mourners, greeting friends, telling old stories and putting visitors at ease with offers of coffee and cookies.
Busch said he received Sabrina’s ashes in early September from someone with the Iowa Department of Human Services, who retrieved them from Hastings Funeral Home in Perry.
Sabrina’s brother John Busch, tall and wiry and older by a year or two than his sister, welcomed cousins and family friends from the rural town of 1,400.
Joseph Busch, Sabrina’s father, and Karena Busch, the child’s step-mother, endured the attentions of metro media crews, and they spoke into the cameras about their lives and the short life of Sabrina.
Perry Police Department Officer Josh Sienkiewicz also attended the memorial service. He was on duty Friday, May 12, 2017, and was the first person to reach the bedside of the lifeless Sabrina about 6:30 p.m.
Perry First Responders Jason and Aimee Bane were present and were thanked for their service by “Bunny” and Joseph Busch.
The service began with a prayer by the Rev. Michael “Wombat” Walrod of De Soto. Joseph and John Busch then lit five candles in honor of their daughter and sister. Recorded music was “Borrowed Angels” and “Heaven’s Now My Home.”
Walrod, a family friend, delivered an emotional eulogy, sharing heartwarming memories of the fun-loving little daredevil Sabrina.
“She was just an innocent, beautiful child who had special needs,” he said.
If anything good came out of Sabrina’s heartbreaking death, Walrod said, “it is that other children were saved,” including Sabrina’s two younger step-sisters, Haley and Macy.
“We feel loss, pain, grief, guilt,” Walrod said, “but we also remember the word of the Sermon on the Mount, ‘Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’ Sabrina will always be alive in our minds, in our hearts, in our souls.”
The service closed with the hymn, “Heaven’s Now My Home,” by Libby L. Allen.
I am sorry that I left you.
I know you feel alone.
God told me that He needed me.
He called me to come home.
And what seemed to be an instant,
In the twinkling of a night,
An angel gently took my hand
And let me tour the sky.
As I ascended into heaven
Beyond the pearly gates,
The angels were rejoicing,
Then I saw His radiant face.
God’s eyes shone down upon me
From the glory of His thrown.
He said, “Enter into paradise
Because heaven’s now your home.”
I fought the fight. I finished the race,
Throughout the trial I kept my faith.
No longer do I suffer.
My body’s been made whole.
I am flying with the angels,
And heaven’s now my home.
God told me not to worry.
He said you’d be okay.
Because eternity is forever,
And we’ll meet again someday.
I fought the fight. I finished the race,
Throughout the trial kept my faith.
No longer do I suffer.
My body’s been made whole.
I am flying with the angels,
And heaven’s now my home.
The mourners then dispersed in the Earlham rain, and the family committed Sabrina’s ashes to the earth in a private ceremony.
