Remembering Jorelys

Just four days after from the same apartment complex where she lived and played, hundreds of family, friends and residents of Cherokee County and the surrounding area gathered tonight for a visitation to remember the young student.

Inside Canton’s , a closed, white casket was surrounded by pink and white flowers. Visitors quietly and somberly honored Jorelys’ memory with a touching slideshow in the chapel area. Family photos revealed a smiling and loving big sister.

What moved the community about this murder, mourners said, was that Jorelys could have been the child of any parent. She played with bubbles, dressed up like a princess, rode go-karts and performed as a pilgrim in a school play. In photo after photo, she was shown laughing with her mother.

That loss of laughter, the loss of a vibrant child, is what brought people who had never even met Jorelys or her family to the funeral home tonight. Shaun Smith, who lives in Canton with her minister husband and two special needs sons, said she felt a need to attend the visitation in an attempt to feel closure.

“The world is going toward violence. My heart is angry. I pray for the Rivera family; I pray for the person who did this. As a community, we must stand together. I know Jorelys is in a better place.”

She called on people to pray for parents.

“We need a strong covering of protection for our children," Smith said. “We can’t trust anyone anymore. But I believe something good will come of this.”

That kind of hope wasn’t as easy to cling to for Alexis Weaver and her 6-year-old son Tajuan Gurvin of Canton. As she brushed away tears, Weaver explained that when visiting his grandmother, her young son was often Jorelys’ playmate at the apartment complex where she lived. Weaver said that her son has difficult questions including why someone would kill a child.

“I just have to tell him it’s something with their minds,” she said.

Will this crime so close to home impact Weaver’s parenting style?

“I explain to Tajuan that he can’t take anything from someone he doesn’t know,” she said. “That if a car gets near him, tell someone right away. Remember the color of the car.”

Weaver also said she won’t allow Tajuan to play unattended, but that it was not unusual for many residents’ children at River Ridge to head out to the playground while their parents or caretakers stayed inside.

“I would ask the kids where their mom and dad were at,” Weaver said. The sense that it’s safe for anyone’s child to be alone for even a moment seems to have been shattered in Canton, at least for now.

Mother of two Janyne Collins lives in Kennesaw but has friends who live in River Ridge. She attended tonight’s visitation after helping in the search for Jorelys just a few days ago.

“I’m here due to the emotion of it all,” she said. “After working so hard to find her, we didn’t get the outcome we wanted.”

Share your condolences in the comments section below, then return to the site later for a report from the candelight vigil at , which is also being held tonight.

Canton-Sixes Patch now has one central location to find all coverage of the Jorelys Rivera case. For stories, photos, videos and more, go to http://canton-ga.patch.com/topics/jorelys-rivera.