THROOP, Pa. -- The flags flew at half-staff. The cheerleaders wore black armbands. And blue and white pompons lay forlornly inside one of the caskets.
In the Scranton-area towns of Throop and Dickson City, crowds of weeping teen-agers and parents made their way from funeral home to funeral home and cemetery to cemetery Tuesday to bury their dead -- the eight high school students killed in a car crash last week.
The blue and white pompons lay at the feet of Elizabeth Mecca, a 16-year-old cheerleader who was one of the victims.
As Mid Valley High School basketball players carried her casket from a Throop funeral home, 16 other cheerleaders stood as an honor guard, shivering and weeping in the cold morning air.
At the Throop Municipal Building across the street, flags waved at half staff as her casket was placed in a waiting hearse. Schools were dismissed in Throop and Dickson City for a day of mourning.
Father Eugene Devitt, who celebrated Miss Mecca's burial mass at St. Bridget's Church, reminded her family and friends that it was the second time the young woman had been carried into his church.
The first time, he said, was for her baptism. But, said Devitt, death -- like birth -- is a part of life.
'When we are born, we are joyful,' the priest said. 'But death is also a part of living. We feel, when young people die, more sadness. I can see all about us great sadness, weeping and sorrow.
'Why are you sad? Elizabeth Hope Mecca doesn't need our tears.
'We miss her love and companionship, but we should rejoice. Elizabeth Hope Mecca has finished her stay here on earth. We should be happy for Elizabeth Hope Mecca. She has met God.'
Later, an overflow crowd at a funeral home in Dickson City forced about 40 friends of another victim, David John Thomas, 17, to sit in the funeral director's private quarters in the basement.
Unable to overhear the service one floor above, the youths sat in silence. Midway through the service, one teen-ager rose from his seat and walked across the room, where he turned his head toward a wall and sobbed quietly.
After the service, Thomas' friends and their parents filed past the casket. Emerging from the funeral home, an ashen-faced man took hold of his son and said, 'You kids don't realize at your age how tough it is to be parents.'
Thomas was buried at a cemetery on windswept hillside at nearby Elmhurst -- not far from the grave of Jody Hadich, 14, another victim who had been buried about two hours earlier.
Other victms were Anthony Lukasik, 17; Gregory La Banic, 16; Michael Cheresko, 15; Michelle Cizik, 15, and Gail Veltri, 15. All but Miss Veltri, of Throop, were residents of Dickson City.
They were killed Friday night when a late model car, apparently driven by Lukasik at a speed estimated at more than 100 mph, struck a guardrail, sailed 200 feet through the air and came to rest upside down in a 30-foot gully.
A coroner's report said the eight died of 'irreversible shock, multiple skull fractures and massive internal injuries.'
