TACOMA, wash. — More than a thousand people mourned the deaths of Charlie and Braden Powell at a public funeral Saturday, nearly a week after the young boys’ father killed them and himself in a gas- fueled blaze.
“We want to celebrate their innocence today,” said the Rev. Dean Curry, lead pastor of Life Center Church in Tacoma. “We want to be grateful for the moments we had with these children.”
The boys’ grandfather Chuck Cox thanked police, social workers, teachers and everyone who cared for Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, as well as people who had prayed for the boys after they died.
It “helps us to know that there are good people in the world — good people who fight against evil,” Cox said.
“We know that they’re with their mother,” Cox said, recalling his daughter, Susan Powell, who has been missing for two years and is presumed dead.
