Children killed in crash mourned

Three children whose deaths in a horrific freeway crash captured the hearts of Orange County residents and people throughout the country were remembered Saturday as loving and independent little “angels” in an emotional church service that brought mourners to tears.

Small white coffins containing the bodies of Kyle Christopher Coble, 5, and his sisters, Emma Lynn, 4, and Katie Gene, 2, were placed at the front of the sanctuary at Presbyterian Church of the Master in Mission Viejo where Kyle and Emma had attended preschool. A teddy bear sat atop each casket alongside a bouquet.

Kyle’s coffin was flanked by those of the girls. Two pink balloons crowding a blue one in the middle were on the wall behind the pulpit, a symbol of how close the children were in age and in life.

“This is by far the most difficult situation I’ve faced as a parent and grandparent,” the Rev. Robert Coble told the estimated 300 mourners. He has presided at many funerals as an Episcopal priest and was assisting at the service for his grandchildren.

Parents Chris and Lori Coble, he said, had gathered strength from the 23rd Psalm, which addresses hope and despair. The words were printed in the program above photos of the children. The poignant message had suddenly become meaningful to the family, said Robert Coble, whose church is in Pennsylvania.

“Our families have been blessed. We have walked through green pastures,” he said. “This week we walked like never before through the valley of the shadow of death.”

The children died May 4 after a big-rig slammed into the back of the family’s minivan on Interstate 5 in stop-and-go traffic in Mission Viejo. Lori Coble, 30, who was driving, and the children’s grandmother, Cynthia Maestri, 60, in the passenger seat, were badly injured and hospitalized for several days.

The driver of the rig, Jorge Miguel Romero, 37, was not hurt, and the crash remains under investigation.

On Saturday, Chris and Lori Coble sat in front of their children’s coffins during the service. The father was overcome by emotion upon seeing the caskets.

Others broke down upon entering, where they were greeted by photo montages of each of the children at play and with their parents. One picture of Kyle and Emma together showed them wearing T-shirts bearing the words, “I’m going to be a big brother,” and “I’m going to be a big sister.”

A photo of the three children, crowding together and smiling, was shown on video screens at opposite ends of the sanctuary.

Officers from the California Highway Patrol, Marines in uniform and firefighters from the Orange County Fire Authority and Los Angeles County Fire Department also attended. Several brushed away tears during a video tribute to the children featuring Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven,” a tribute written by the songwriter and Will Jennings after the death of Clapton’s own 4-year-old son.

A woman walked around passing tissues to firefighters during the song before succumbing to emotion herself.

Chris and Lori Coble, who live in Ladera Ranch, talked about their children in a brief remembrance. One of his greatest joys was coming home from work, the father said.

“It was a stampede to the front door, screaming ‘daddy!’ I felt bad because I couldn’t hug them all at once,” he said.

Kyle was a happy kid who had just learned to ride his bicycle without training wheels and played tee-ball, Chris Coble said. He died a day after celebrating his fifth birthday.

Emma was sweet, loving and fearless. She would sit on the beach amid crashing waves while the other kids scattered. She loved dressing up as a princess.

Two-year-old Katie was a “pistol” with “an attitude,” but she was also a mommy’s girl. She had just begun learning to talk. The first word she spoke was cookie.

“They used to run through the house screaming and playing together,” Chris Coble said. “We don’t know how we’re going to move on from here.”

He thanked the community for its support and people from across the country who have sent e-mails, letters and cards of condolence. He also thanked the emergency crews who responded to the crash and lifted the children from the wreckage.

“It takes a special person to do that,” he said.

In his remarks, Robert Coble talked about the difficulty in recovering from a tragedy such as the one that had befallen his son’s family.

Some people believe it takes time to heal all wounds, the reverend said. But he added that he did not know if that were possible. Still, he said, he hoped his son and daughter-in-law would have other children.

“I hope that some day they will be parents again, because they have so much to give.”

The children were buried at El Toro Memorial Park in Lake Forest.

hgreza@latimes.com