HILDALE, Utah — A survivor so young he stepped on a stool to reach a lectern microphone, remembered his heart “whacking like a jackhammer” in the moments before a flash flood swept he and his family away nearly two weeks ago.
Joseph Jessop Jr. spoke Saturday during a rare public memorial service hosted by two often-secretive polygamous towns on the Utah-Arizona border that typically shun outsiders and loathe government interference.
The public memorial was a surprise because funerals are typically handled discreetly, with no invitations extended to outsiders, including family of the deceased, if they aren’t members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was held in the same lush park surrounded by rich-red rock canyon walls where sisters Josephine Jessop, Naomi Jessop and Della Black are thought to have been on Sept. 14 with their 13 children before driving down the canyon during a flash-flood alert.
The neighboring towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., hosted the afternoon memorial service at the top of a canyon road in Maxwell Park where a few hundred people gathered, including Utah Gov. Gary Herbert.
Husband and father Joseph N. Jessop Sr. lost children as young as 4 and 5 years old that day: Rebekah, Melissa, Naomi, Ruth, Valient, Velvet and “Sweet” Caress.
A heartbroken Sheldon Black Jr. remembered his wife, Della, who “did everything for me. She knew exactly what I needed”; his “little angel,” LaRue, who would throw her arms around his neck and squeeze him; and his “sweet, precious angel,” Melanie.
On Saturday, he recalled his 6-year-old son, Tyson Lucas, with his “beautiful, heavenly smile,” wanting to join him to do electrical work, climbing the ladder, using the drill, not wanting to goof off. Tyson is presumed dead but remains missing nearly two weeks after the flood. On Saturday, teams of specially trained dogs still searched for him.
Three young boys — Joseph N. Jessop Jr. and two of Sheldon Black Jr.’s sons — survived.
