The choir's last note ended. Rose let go of her sisters' hands, rose to her feet, and walked to the front of the church.
Before her eyes, surrounded by bouquets of every flower available in the Bronx in December, was the open casket. She took a deep breath, and began.
"Grace, my daughter, was born May 1, 1975. She died December 8, 1996. My hope that she would survive lasted until the moment she took her last breath."
Each of the church's pews were full. Those who couldn't find seats stood in the aisles and crowded the doorways. Rose continued.
"When her life was gone, the only thought I had was that I wanted to go with her. The rest of my days seemed very brief. The only thing that mattered is that life is only temporary, and one thing we know, is that it ends.
"Someday, I will leave this life. We all will. And I know that when that happens, I will be with Grace again.
"But I'm not with her now. She's somewhere beyond my comprehension, and I'm still alive, still on earth in this physical body.
"So my question is: Why? What's the point? What's the point of being alive at all, when it only comes to an end?
"Twenty-one years ago, I became a mother. I divide my life at that point. I was one person before then, and I became a different person the day I found out I was pregnant.
"Even before she was born, Grace began her effect. The growing baby inside of me taught me what was important, and what wasn't. She taught me to value my health and my happiness. She filled me with more love than I knew I was capable of containing. And she taught me to share that love, not only with my own child, but with every child of God that I am honored to come into contact with.
"We all have our own individual lives, because we all have our own distinct mission. Our mission is the important thing. These physical bodies sustain us, keep us here, so we can carry out our mission. But when the mission is complete, the body can leave.
"Grace lived twenty-one years of life. Would it have made a different if she had lived fifty, one hundred years longer? No. Time isn't the important thing. The important thing is how you change the world.
"When she was dying, we felt more love than we ever had. All of the little things simply fell away. And hate and anger, those are little things. Love and happiness are larger than we can comprehend.
"Did she have to die for me to feel the way I do now? Yes, she did, because if she hadn't died, I would feel and think differently. And the way I think now is the way I was always meant to think.
"The world is a better place for having known her. And her spirit will live inside of me, and inside of all of us who have come to say goodbye.
"But it isn't goodbye. Her life is really only beginning now. Because instead of being contained in only one person, it grows inside each of us. And our lives, and Grace's life, will grow still, in everything we do, and in each person each of us touches."
The choir began its next hymn, and Rose returned to her seat.