Victims of Cicero fire memorialized
Allison Gist slowly made her way out of the church where a service was held Saturday for her three children and two grandchildren, all killed in a Cicero fire a week earlier.
Every few feet, she was stopped by well-wishers offering hugs, condolences and envelopes.
“I didn’t know everyone cared like that,” said Gist before getting into a long white limousine headed toward the traditional post-funeral meal. “You never know how much everyone cares until something like that.”
The fire killed seven people. At the Second Baptist Church of LaGrange on Saturday, large pictures of five of the victims stood in front of the pulpit: siblings Sallie Gist, 19, and twins Elijah and Elisha Gist, 16; and Sallie’s two children, Rashon Gist Reed, 3, and Brian Gist Reed, just 3 days old.
The fire started in the back porch of a home at 3034 S. 48th Ct. in Cicero last Sunday morning. Investigators have yet to determine a cause.
Elijah Grays, the father of Sallie, Elijah and Elisha Gist, got to Saturday’s service about 45 minutes early and smoked a cigarette outside.
“I’m trying to hold up,” he said. “It’s a hard situation.”
The Gists were well-known in LaGrange’s tightly-knit African-American community, where they lived for many years. Soon, the small brick church with blue awnings brimmed with life.
Pews filled and extra chairs were hastily unfolded to line the aisles on the church’s main floor and in the balcony. People stood shoulder-to-shoulder in whatever space was left, and the crowd spilled down the church’s front steps to the front door.
Among those attending were several area ministers and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.).
Sobs, occasional laughter, shouts of praise and a gospel-laden organ accompanied songs, poems and memories from friends and relatives of the five young people.
“We can’t do anything about the length of our life, but we can do something about the width and breadth of our life,” said Karen Brown, a teacher at Lyons Township High School, where Elisha Gist was a student. “While her life may have been short, it was wide and it was deep.”
The service lasted about two hours and afterward, family members seemed buoyed by the outpouring of love and concern.
“It helped us very much to have so much support of the neighborhood, the community, the schools,” Grays said. “It doesn’t take the pain away quickly, but it makes me feel better.”
Amy Smith was among several young people who wore T-shirts emblazoned with the victim’s names, pictures and phrases like “Gone But Never Forgotten.” The service had crystallized memories of so many hours spent with Sallie, Elijah and Elisha.
“Just the things we used to do, hang out, watch movies,” said Smith, 23, her eyes red. “This is a tragedy that shouldn’t have ever happened.
Also killed in the fire were Byron Reed, 20, Sallie Gist’s boyfriend and the father of Rashon and Brian, and Tiera Davidson, 18, a family friend.
On Saturday afternoon, a service was held for Reed at Carter Funeral Chapels on the city’s South SideSouth Side reviews
. His children and Sallie Gist also were memorialized at the service.
Reed’s mother, Shilla Newton, said before the service that her family was comforted by their spiritual faith.
“Our family recognizes that when things like this happen, God has a purpose,” she said.
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