O how my heart ached. Isabela's stepfather and stepbrother had arrived, and their emotion positively identified the body. I spent most of the rest of that day dazed from the sight,and thought of who could have done such a deed. But this was the ugliest manifestation of sin I had ever seen. And I know there isn't a hierarchy of sins.
Sin is sin.
Think about that. Anyway, after we left the morgue, around noon, we started informing the congregation, and by the end of the day nearly the whole congregation and many friends and family attended Isabela's burial at a local cemetery. Risa, who about 9 months ago suffered a minor stroke and battles with high blood pressure, had to leave early. The rest watched as her casket was lowered into the ground without one word spoken, one song sang, or one prayer offered publicly. It would have been different, if we had control of the procession, but we were victims of the culture and adhered to the family's desires.