THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 23, 1995 TAG: 9503230542
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
Betty H. Cornetta came and cried over the tiny casket of Baby Angel Valentine because she didn't know if anyone else would.
She had sobbed for hours at the news last month of the newborn girl found dead in the garbage. She had hugged all the closer her own daughter, Victoria, then 3 months old.
At the close of Wednesday's 15-minute graveside funeral at Greenlawn Memorial Gardens, after other women had placed flowers and a white stuffed bear beside the two-foot casket, Cornetta knelt beside it with Victoria.
The Portsmouth woman put her fingertips to her lips and to the white fiberglass box and then touched her daughter's hand to the casket. She hurried away, wiping tears from beneath her sunglasses.
``She came into the world with no respect or dignity, and I wanted her to go out with a little respect, dignity and a little love,'' Cornetta said. ``My daughter was born with so many people loving her, I thought I'd share it.''
About 50 other people shared as well, under a warm noon sun on a windswept day.
Most were from the Portsmouth Police Department, which still is investigating who gave birth to the girl and then abandoned her Feb. 13.
Police officers arranged the funeral, soliciting burial money from Social Services, partly donated services from Fisher Funeral Home in Portsmouth and a free grave site from Greenlawn.
There were also the two can-recycling workers who discovered the girl's still-warm body at the Southeastern Virginia Public Service Authority's trash-to-steam plant and named her when no parents were found.
``You know we were going to be here, if no one else was going to be here,'' said Ida M. Carter, standing with Ernest L. White. ``I guess we're the adopted grandparents - we're here.''
There also were mourners with no connection to the unknown newborn - mourners like Gail W. Hines, her sister, Sheila C. Williams, and Williams' 3-year-old son, Christopher, of Portsmouth. The sisters decided just that morning to come, but Hines shrugged and had trouble saying why.
``I don't see how anyone could do a child like that,'' she said, nodding toward the white casket. ``That poor little thing didn't even have half a chance.''
Five police honor guards stood stiffly around the casket and its six sprays of pink and white flowers sent by florists, Carter and White's employers and private citizens. One arrangement included stuffed animals, rattles and two plastic baby bottles.
Five police chaplains spoke about cherishing Baby Angel's short life and the strangers who cared about her, about praying for the parents who didn't, and about trusting that there was a divine reason for it all.
``Lord, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt you still have somebody that will love us even when others who should love us don't love us,'' said the Rev. Ronnie T. Northam Sr.
``I would ask that you be very prayerful concerning the mother and the father of this babe,'' said the Rev. James E. Chisholm, director of the department's chaplains. ``We know not the circumstances that surround this incident.''
Sgt. Allen Harvey thanked those who helped provide the funeral: ``At a time when we see so much violence and anger in our society . . . it shows how much they care for someone they never really knew.''
Voices called out ``Amen!'' and rose in natural harmony as they sang single verses of ``Amazing Grace'' and ``Jesus Loves Me.'' Soon it was over.
The eight chairs lined up in front of the casket under a green canopy - chairs that normally would be occupied by family members - remained empty during the service. When almost everyone had gone, the chairs blew over in the wind.
Five weeks earlier, detective Carl F. Sequeira had picked Baby Angel's body out of the garbage. Now he picked up her white fiberglass casket and gently laid it in a two-foot-deep grave.
Then someone tucked the white stuffed bear into the grave, not far from where an angel statue overlooks the cemetery's infant section. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
BETH BERGMAN
Staff
Betty H. Cornetta places the hand of her daughter, Victoria, on the
casket of Baby Angel Valentine.
BETH BERGMAN
Staff
``Lord, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt you still have somebody
that will love us even when others who should love us don't love
us,'' intones the Rev. Ronnie T. Northam Sr.
KEYWORDS: ABANDONED BABY by CNB