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Planning Funerals For Children Lost To Gun Violence

Screengrab King Carter Funeral Livestream
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WLRN
King Carter had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed funeral. He was 6 when he was shot and killed earlier this year. Kid-themed funerals are one way families try to cope with the sudden loss of innocence.

When children and teenagers die, they’re remembered for who they were--kids who loved cartoons, school and sports.

In the past decade, more than 300 children and teens have been killed by gun violence in Miami-Dade County.

Terry Wright, owner of the Wright & Young Funeral Home  in North Miami-Dade, planned the funerals for some of  those children whose lives were cut short by senseless acts of violence.

And even though his business is death, Wright struggles with the homegoing services for  kids.

“When you have someone that’s taken from you, especially a young teenager, a child, that’s a hurt that I can’t explain,” he says.  

The funeral home's staff members are aware that when children are killed children will attend the funerals.

“It’s very hard to make a funeral kid-friendly,” says Krystle Hale, funeral director at Wright & Young. “We basically focus on the life of the child, what they loved to do.”

They know it softens the blow if only a little when there is a theme like football or princess --something familiar from outside of the somber proceedings.

Listen to the radio story on what it’s like to plan some of these funerals.

Read an in-depth  story by  the Miami Herald on planning kid- themed funerals here.

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