The touch was gentle, a mother’s touch. Only this one was placed on the casket holding her daughter.
Throughout the service Thursday for Linnea Dick at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Fort Collins, Opal Dick’s extended hand reached out to her daughter.
“I want to say how sorry I am I can’t hold you tight,” Opal Dick said. “That’s what she always asked me to do — hold her tight.”
The Fort Collins community turned out Thursday to fill to overflowing the small church built in 1905.
More than 400 sat or stood in the church, or outside in the soggy grass.
They paid tribute to a person described as a “beautiful, intelligent and caring young woman.” The 20-year-old Dick was sexually assaulted and murdered in her Fort Collins home last Friday.
“She was a loving daughter, sister and friend,” said Pastor David Bradshaw. “She had such a vibrant spirit and a love for life that showed through everything she did. Linnea had a road map for her life. There were so many things she wanted to do before her life was taken from her.”
During the service, the family, Bradshaw and friends recalled how Linnea Dick’s passions were music, dance, photography and cooking.
They recalled her love for animals, saying she rescued many animals in need. She loved her pets, including her dogs, Lage and Bentley; her cats, Desi, Kahjuh and Teensil; and her lizard, Van Gogh.
And her mother made her a promise during the service — “your animals will be loved.”
“I will talk to you every single day,” promised Opal Dick. “I will look for signs every day that your spirit is with me.”
On a screen near the white casket, the mourners saw 90 pictures of Linnea’s life with a theme that resounded of family and animals — with her mom and dad, with her sister, Andrea Gliva, and with her pets — the cats, the dogs and riding horseback.
“I want you to know that I love you very much,” Andrea said. “You always made me look at things with a different perspective. I know at times I was hard on you, but only because I wanted the best from you.
“You were one of the sweetest people I ever knew. I know you are in a safe place now,” she said.
Surrounding the casket were dozens of floral arrangements. On top of the casket in a steel-colored frame were two pictures of the young woman who was a student at Front Range Community College and had planned to finish her bachelor’s degree at Colorado State University. Her dad, Don, has worked in the CSU chemistry department for 38 years.
On the day her murder was discovered, her aunt Rose Carroll recalled, there was a beautiful sunset to the west of Fort Collins, “and all of us who saw that sunset knew you were in heaven,” Carroll said. “I will love you and always miss you.”
The family asks that donations be made to the Linnea Dick Memorial Fund to benefit animal shelters in northern Colorado c/o Carroll-Lewellen Funeral and Cremation Services, 503 Terry St., Longmont, CO 80501.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
