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Posted: 7:47 PM- CEDAR HILLS - Three hearses paused outside an LDS chapel here, their presence all too familiar for a family that now had lost eight of its 11 members.
The father, Gary Ceran, said he would not shake his fist at heaven, even as he mourned the loss of his wife and two children, who died when an alleged drunken driver plowed into their car on Christmas Eve.
Ceran already had lost five other children - three to brain tumors and two to a premature birth.
"Only the soul that knows the greatest grief can know the greatest rapture," the father said, his voice quivering as he praised God and testified to a funeral congregation of more than 600 people that his family would reunite after death.
Still, the tears fell.
"The only way to take grief out of death is to take love out of life," he said.
After a 32-mile funeral procession to West Valley City, Ceran clasped the hands of his two remaining children, his face uncommonly serene. Before him lay the caskets of his wife, Cheryl Ceran, his 15-year-old son, Ian, and 7-year-old daughter, Julianna.
He wept at times, his emotions overcoming him as he knelt beside his wife's casket at the Valley View Memorial Park and deposited a white carnation.
The Cedar Hills family's life had changed forever early Dec. 24 as they returned from a cast party for the final production of "A Christmas Carol" at the Hale Centre Theatre. The family's car was struck by an alleged drunken driver who police say ran a red light near 5400 South and 700 West in Murray.
Ceran said he pleaded with God that day to "stay thy hand and let them live."
He put his prayer to a poem, "Upon my knees, yea face to dust, I seek thy comfort found above. And plead for peace - Oh Lord I must, be strengthened by thy boundless love."
The Ceran tragedy has generated thousands of dollars in support from people who said they were touched by the family's pain and by the father's apparent willingness to forgive the man who faces charges of automobile homicide and driving under the influence of alcohol.
The Hale Centre Theatre raised $25,600 through two benefit performances of "See How They Run" on Friday. Executive producer Sally Dietlein expected donations to exceed $30,000 by the end of the third performance Saturday.
Lightstone Studios, a church-centered producer of music and videos in Provo, also has scheduled a concert on behalf of the Cerans. The performance, slated for 7:30 p.m. Jan. 18 at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, will feature musicians such as Peter Breinholt, Cherie Call and Paul Cardall.
"I have never seen such an outpouring of love," said a red-eyed Susan Redding, who traveled from Mapleton to attend the funeral.
President Thomas S. Monson, a member of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, mourned with the family Saturday. Death doesn't dissolve families, he told them.
Instead, he said the family will soon realize that they simply said, "So long."
"The time for tears is past," he said. "The time for smiling and looking to the future has dawned."
And so Gary Ceran buried his wife - a pain so profound that he said he had lost half of himself. He buried his son, enclosing a sword to represent the teen's unwavering defense of truth. He buried his daughter, placing a tiara on her head and describing her as his "princess."
"Life is eternal," he said. "Love is immortal. Death is only a horizon. And a horizon is nothing but the limit of our sight."
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