Moments before the funeral of Kayla Leigh Canedo and Brittany Katherine Feldman started, a series of photographs of the two — from when they were infants in North Fulton County to when they were students at the University of Georgia — flashed across several massive screens at North Point Community Church.
Adele's "When We Were Young" serenaded the more than 1,000 mourners at the Alpharetta church.
“You look like a movie/You sound like a song,” came through the speakers. “My God, this reminds me/Of when we were young.”
“They were BFFs all of their lives,” said Monsignor Dan Stack of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, where the two were members. “Even during adolescence, when girls can be prickly, these girls were close, close friends. Now they have gone to be with the Lord together.”
So it seemed fitting for Canedo, 19, and Feldman, 20 — who grew up together, roomed together in college and ultimately died together — to be memorialized together.
Feldman and Canedo were two of the four UGA students killed last Wednesday in an Oconee County wreck. A fifth UGA student is still in critical condition.
“It is bittersweet to know that they are with the Lord, where we would want them to be,” Stack said. “But not now. We were not ready. We didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye. We wish with all of our heart they’d been with us longer.”
At the massive church, busloads of mourners — presumably from UGA, where the girls were sophomores and popular in their respective sororities — quietly filed in for the Catholic service. A singer and a band performed spirituals and hymns between Scripture readings by family members.
And amid the quiet tears, there was even room for laughter.
In eulogizing his younger sister, Thomas Canedo recalled the time she came out on Facebook — “As a professional Easter egg hunter.”
“Kayla wouldn’t have believed us if we told her how many people gathered here on her behalf,” Thomas Canedo said, adding that his sister, who overcame scoliosis in high school, had an incredible depth. “She was quiet. Not standoffish. But it was as if she was there to be truly present. To get to know you as a good listener.”
Canedo’s younger sister, Emma Canedo, said it was not a cliché to say that her sister was her role model.
“I never looked at anyone the way I looked at Kayla,” Emma said. “Kayla was a million wonderful things.”
Lindsay Maier, a cousin of Brittany Feldman, recalled large family gatherings and trips. Maier said she recently moved to Alpharetta, a change made easier by having her cousin around.
“A bright light followed Brittany and it was contagious. She was a gift and she had a gift,” Maier said. “If a part of living is to die happy, Brittany beat us to it.”
The joint funeral of Canedo and Feldman brings to a close the period of public mourning for the four students lost in the April 27th car crash.
On Monday, Christina Devon Semeria's funeral was held at Birmingham United Methodist Church in Milton.
On Sunday night, more than 1,000 people attended the funeral of Halle Grace Scott at Dunwoody United Methodist Church.
Agnes Kim, meanwhile, is still in critical condition at Athens Regional Medical Center. Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry visited Agnes Kim's family Monday evening.
The five young women were in a Toyota Camry headed northbound on Ga. 15 last Wednesday. According to the Georgia State Patrol, Kim, who was driving, veered over the center line into the path of a Chevrolet Cobalt.
A team of investigators returned to the crash site Monday morning to try to reconstruct the accident.
While no full report of the accident has been filed, a preliminary report issued last week suggested that Kim might have over-corrected and inadvertently crossed the center line. The driver of the Cobalt was not seriously injured.
The State Patrol has noted that neither driver was impaired and that no alcohol or drugs were found in either vehicle. In addition, crash analysis shows that neither car was speeding.
The UGA crash happened a year and five days after the Georgia Southern University community suffered a similar tragedy. Five nursing students were killed April 22, 2015, in a fiery wreck near Savannah.
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