THE funeral for the Scots brother and sister killed in a plane crash in Florida took place today (Thu) at the same church where they were baptised.
Relatives and friends of Carly and Daniel Beattie wept as their wicker coffins were carried into the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Penicuik, Midlothian.
The siblings died earlier this month when the two-seater plane Carly, 21, was piloting came down in a swamp.
Carly’s coffin was adorned with pink and white flowered garlands. The colours were blue and white on her 24-year-old brother’s coffin.
Around 200 people attended the service, with the pews and balcony of the church filled to capacity and many mourners standing throughout the hour-long ceremony.
Rev. John McInnes led the tributes to the brother and sister, telling the congregation that both had been baptised there.
Humour mingled with the sadness. Rev McInnes said:
“Daniel loved to cook. He especially liked exotic foods and even tried deep fried frogs and beetles in Thailand. I don’t think I would have done the same. “
He added:
“Music was a big part of Daniel’s life and he had a love of playing the guitar. “
Turning to Carly, he described her as a
“strong and determined girl.”
“She liked to work hard and play harder,’ he said.
“She had a talent in athletics and being with her friends was very important to her.
The hymns included Morning has Broken, All things Bright and Beautiful and I Watch the Sunrise.
Family members read from the first letter of St Paul to the Thessalonians and from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians.
School days: Mourners heard the brother and sister shared a close bond
Daniel’s steel guitar and Carly’s running spikes were brought to the front of the church as the congregation took communion.
Audible sobbing could be heard as the coffins were led out of the church to the sounds of Amy Macdonald’s Caledonia. Outside, parents Tom and Elaine watched as their children’s coffins were placed in the cars.
The coffins were then taken to Mortonhall Crematorium, Edinburgh, for a humanist service.
Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here played as the coffins were brought in.
Anne Roberts of the Humanist Society of Scotland led the tributes.
She said:
“Daniel was of a romantic nature and his passion laid in music.
“He had a talent for smooth persuasion and when he was younger was always able to get his mum to come pick him up in the wee hours of the morning after a night out in Edinburgh.
“His main ambition in life was to be a singer songwriter. “
Daniel’s university friend Fraser, read the native American prayer Each New Dawn, which contains the line:
“I give this one thought to keep/I am with you still – I do not sleep.”
Carly’s athletics coach Bill Walker stood and spoke of his memories. Again, there was room for humour as he asked a few of her athletics teammates to demonstrate how she would cheekily delay the start of her races.
He said:
“She was a very focused and committed girl. She knew what she wanted.
“She was a real demon on the tracks and she scared the boys. “
Ms Roberts concluded the service by saying the brother and sisters
“flew away together.”
The tragedy happened on June 9 during a family holiday to Florida.
Carly was studying in the US and training to be a pilot.
She and her brother set off around 10am but, for reaons that are still far from clear, the aircraft crashed in a desolate swamp in Indian River County, about 150 miles north of Miami.
