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After the memorial, Weldon Richards loads flower arrangements for the graveside service at Stafford Memorial Park.
Mourners file past the caskets of Rodney Pulliam and his sons Rodney II, Jordan and Matthew at the end of yesterday's graveside services at Stafford Memorial Park.
Drivers and attendants wait beside four hearses outside First Mount Zion Baptist Church at the end of the memorial service.
FROM LEFT: Shirley Thomas, Emma Jane Wyche, Deaconess Linda Harris, Yasmin Thomas and Reagan Jackson gather for yesterday's service at First Mount Zion Baptist Church near Dumfries. About 1,500 gathered to remember Rodney Pulliam and his three sons. |
IT WAS A TIME OF SONG, a time of praise, a time of rejoicing. And it was precisely the kind of service Tammie Armstead Pulliam desired for her family.
"My sister didn't want this to be a funeral," said Mary Armstead. "She wanted it to be a home-going."
Yesterday, at First Mount Zion Baptist Church near Dumfries, nearly 1,500 people joined the Fredericksburg native in saying good-bye to her husband, Rodney Pulliam, and their three children--10-year-old Rodney II, 8-year-old Jordan and 6-year-old Matthew.
The four were killed instantly one week ago in a chain-reaction crash as they sat in a line of traffic not far from their Frederick, Md., home.
Staring at three, small white caskets and a fourth, full-sized one draped with an American flag, it would have been easy for the assembly to mourn, to weep, to solemnly ask why.
Instead, the sanctuary was filled with music, with clapping, with shouts of "Alleluia."
"We ought to rejoice when people die in the Lord," Keith Armstead said after singing about heaven in his rendition of "I Bowed on My Knees and Cried Holy." "We ought to turn this into a revival."
Armstead was one of three siblings of Tammie Pulliam who sang at yesterday's service. And each time, the crowd was moved to clap, to stand or to raise their hands in jubilation.
Sounds of praise reverberated in the cavernous sanctuary as speaker after speaker told of Rodney Pulliam's dedication as a minister of God and their confidence that he and his young sons are now inhabitants of heaven.
"We come into this place to celebrate a life well-spent in the service of the King--lives well-spent," said Dr. A. Lincoln James, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Richmond and Pulliam's mentor in the ministry.
James said there would be time for grief and time for sorrow, but that yesterday was a time for thanking God.
"In the midst of the tragedy, there is good news--and the good news is that Rodney and these three little boys are not in these pretty boxes," James said.
Making reference to this weekend's celebration of Jesus Christ's resurrection, James reminded the congregation of the work of redemption.
"Because [Christ] lives, Rodney lives," James said. "Because [Christ] lives, these boys live."
While much of yesterday's service was spent in song and prayer and words of God's wisdom, there were also recollections of the personalities of each of those killed.
Rodney Pulliam had packed a lot of living into 38 years--pursuing academics with a vengeance and energetically investing his time in ministry.
He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University, completed his doctoral coursework at Virginia Tech and got a law degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
He spent a decade in the Army Reserves and National Guard and along the way served as assistant pastor at four churches.
On March 3, he was installed as pastor of Little Forest Baptist Church in North Stafford's Boswell's Corner area.
Earlier this month, Pulliam was appointed chief operating officer in Frederick, the first black to hold such a high-ranking position in that city.
Before that, he had worked on Capitol Hill for Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, a woman he'd met during law school.
"I had to be here," Jones said after yesterday's service. "I just had to be here."
Jones noted Pulliam's intense work ethic and his devotion to his family.
Pulliam was taking his three boys to the barbershop last Saturday morning when they were killed. Police are investigating whether the driver who caused the crash had an epileptic seizure.
The accident occurred within sight of First Missionary Baptist Church where Pulliam had served as assistant pastor before taking on his duties at Little Forest.
First Missionary Baptist Church held a memorial service for the family on Thursday.
Ten-year-old Rodney was a fourth-grader at Orchard Grove Elementary. Yesterday, he was remembered for his love of professional wrestling, baseball and soccer and for earning a "Character Counts" award in school.
Jordan, who was killed three days shy of his ninth birthday, was a third-grader who was preparing for a math contest to benefit St. Jude's Hospital for children with cancer. He, too, enjoyed sports and was known for being sociable.
Matthew, the baby of the family, was a first-grader with a passion for basketball, PlayStation 2 and wrestling action figures.
Yesterday, as relatives and church family gathered, Tammie Pulliam clutched them one by one in a long embrace, each time offering a word of praise for God.
"God is good," she told one.
"He is able," she told another.
"Continue praying," she exhorted a third.
Each time, she remained serene and offered a warm smile.
It was Andre Thompson, a friend of Rodney Pulliam for 17 years, who admitted it was initially "devastating" to hear of the deaths.
But then, he said, he took heart in knowing the man's commitment to Christ and thought about what his friend was likely thinking.
"Rodney is probably saying, 'To some people, it may have been sudden--but the one thing I want them to know is, we were ready.'"
