“I truly felt loved when I was with her", Saugus High shooting victim laid to rest
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - One of the Saugus High School shooting victims was laid to rest. Friends and family said goodbye to Gracie Muehlberger, who was shot and killed by a classmate on November 14th.
About 500 filled Valencia’s Real Life Church Saturday afternoon, many dressed in Gracie’s favorite color pink, along with another 3,200 who watched online, celebrated the life of the 15-year-old Santa Clarita girl.
Her service opened with a song called, “Cinderella” she used to dance to in the kitchen with her dad.
“It was a very special song and her and I always talked about how it would be her father/daughter song at her wedding someday,” says Bryan Muehlberger, in between his two sons on stage of the church that his family has been part of for almost a decade.
He says Gracie loved to dance, sing, and could find a stage anywhere, in front of a crowd or by herself. Muehlberger says his daughter embodied the true meaning of her name.
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“I don’t ever recall her hurting a soul. She was always doing kind acts and fun things and every story we’ve heard has been just that.”
Friends told funny stories, like plans to grow old together in a house full of dogs. And they shared who Gracie was on the inside; a goofy free-spirit who really made her friends feel loved.
“I truly felt loved when I was with her and with her family,” says one friend.
In a tragedy of this magnitude that would naturally generate anger and hate, a family friend pointed out that all the messages have been of love, something Gracie helped teach them even in her death.
She was a kid who friends say would choose Starbucks, Cold Stone ice cream or a jar of cherries over water any day, but even in her youth was wise beyond her years. Her family found a quote she wrote in a journal a few years ago that says, “you only have one life to live. So why not live it great, real and fill it with memories and experiences?”
Following the service, her friends handed out pink bracelets that say ‘Gracie Strong,’ and pink ribbons to tie around the trees at church in her honor.