Hundreds attend Carmo family funeral

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By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It was a solemn service to honor the lives of five family members killed in a horrific interstate crash. But the funeral service ended Monday evening on an upbeat note as hundreds in attendance clapped in unison to a praise song.

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Coffins are loaded into five waiting hearses at the conclusion of the Carmo family funeral at the First United Methodist Church, Marietta, on Monday, Feb. 13, 2012.

Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com Coffins are loaded into five waiting hearses at the conclusion of the Carmo family funeral at the First United Methodist Church, Marietta, on Monday, Feb. 13, 2012.

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Fabio Souza, standing far right, the uncle of Lidaine Carmo, 15, is hugged by a well wisher after the Carmo family funeral at the First United Methodist Church in Marietta on Monday, Feb. 13, 2012. Lidiane is the only member of her immediate family to survive the horrific crash on I-75 in Florida. Souza has said he and his wife are adopting Lidiane.

Curtis Compton, ccompton@ajc.com Fabio Souza, standing far right, the uncle of Lidaine Carmo, 15, is hugged by a well wisher after the Carmo family funeral at the First United Methodist Church in Marietta on Monday, Feb. 13, 2012. Lidiane is the only member of her immediate family to survive the horrific crash on I-75 in Florida. Souza has said he and his wife are adopting Lidiane.

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From Marietta, members of the Carmo family killed Jan. 29 will travel to their native county of Brazil, where they will be laid to rest.

The five were among 15 from a tiny Brazilian church that were headed back to Cobb County from a religious conference when they were caught up in a massive crash on I-75, near Gainesville, Fla.

Killed were Jose and Adriana Carmo, both pastors at the International Church of the Restoration, and their 17-year-old daughter Leticia. Jose Carmo's brother Edson Carmo, and Edson's girlfriend Roselia DaSilva, also died.

The 500 people gathered inside the First United Methodist Church in Marietta to mourn the family included many others beyond the Carmo family's church. There with family friends and classmates from Sprayberry High School, where Leticia Carmo and her younger sister, Lidiane, attended.

Absent from the ceremony was 15-year-old Lidiane Carmo, who remains hospitalized in Florida after being critically injured. Lidiane will one day be able to watch the funeral service, which was recorded, Pastor Aaron Amazonas told the AJC.

Five caskets lined the front of the church sanctuary, each topped with red roses, white lilies and greenery. The two men were each in blue caskets, with Jose Carmo in the darker one. The women were in white caskets. Leticia, in the middle of the row of five, was in a light pink casket.

Beside each casket stood more flowers behind large, smiling photographs.

One by one, pastors and friends shared stories about the five, including Abby Lehman, a junior at Sprayberry, who remembered Leticia's "simple, elegant glow."

"She never had a bad thing to say," Lehman said. "She knew that in heaven, grudges, anger and drama did not matter."

Lehman's mother also spoke, stating that the accident had helped unite the school community.

Five members from the Brazilian church will accompany the five deceased to Brazil for burial.