Dressed in cherished camouflage fatigues and rubber military-style boots, 6-year-old Joshua A. Woods was mourned at a Steger funeral home Tuesday, five days after the boy was killed in the accident near Midway Airport.
Joshua of Leroy, Ind., died Thursday when Southwest Flight 1248 skidded off the end of an airport runway, plowed through a perimeter fence and crushed his family’s car at the corner of 55th Street and Central Avenue.
The accident injured 10 others, who have all been released from area hospitals.
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Joshua’s family had initially planned on dressing the boy in a suit, said Glenn Smits, funeral director at Steger Memorial Chapel, who described the scene inside the private memorial service.
“And then they said, `We’d like to put him in what his favorite clothing was,'” Smits said.
Joshua was laid out in an open small white coffin, flanked with a collage of family photos, said Smits. The family asked reporters not to attend the wake.
A prominent picture was of Joshua on a bicycle, said Smits, who mentioned that the boy’s small gray scooter was propped up against the coffin.
Ronald A. Stearney Sr., a family lawyer and spokesman, said that at one point about 100 people filled the chapel, although perhaps twice that number may have paid their respects throughout the evening.
Yet, although the numbers of family members were strong Tuesday, relatives themselves are experiencing a weak and emotional time, Stearney said.
He said that Leroy Woods, the boy’s father who was behind the wheel at the time of the accident, is already exhibiting symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder–a psychological condition usually characterized by depression, anxiety and flashbacks.
Joshua’s 4-year-old brother, Jacob, who was in the car last Thursday, is experiencing nightmares.
“He’s become rather withdrawn. This family will receive counseling, especially this child,” Stearney said.
And another brother, Joseph, 9, who was not in the car, was recently playing with a toy airplane when he turned it on its side and said “This is on Josh,” according to Stearney.
“These people are heartbroken,” he said, adding that Leroy was overcome with grief Tuesday, upon seeing his son in a coffin.
“When he first saw the baby in the coffin, he broke down and was crying,” Stearney said. “He just couldn’t take it.”
A mother of a girl who had been a kindergarten classmate of Joshua’s at Winfield Elementary School,described the mood inside the chapel as somber and very tearful.
“It was very sad for her, because she played with him at school,” the girl’s mother, who did not give her name, said through tears. “We told her that he is in heaven now. He’s with Jesus, and Joshua is an angel and he’s protecting everybody.”
A funeral service is planned Wednesday in the chapel.
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