Tears and community spirit mix
as Key West mourns Jonathan Wells
BY TERRY SCHMIDA
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of mourners from all walks of life filled the pews, lawns and streets around St. Mary’s Church Wednesday afternoon to pay their respects to Jonathan Zachary Wells and his family.
The well-liked 14-year-old Key West High School student died a week earlier in a Miami hospital from a wound sustained while he and a friend played with a pellet rifle at the latter’s New Town home.
Many of the somber attendees attempted to beat the stifling heat with umbrellas and makeshift fans, as they spilled out from the large Truman Avenue basilica. On the streets dozens of Key West Police Department officers and firefighters from the city’s fire department offered solace to Wells family members, and shared words of comfort with politicians such as City Commissioner Clayton Lopez. The fallen teen’s father Steve is a shift commander with the KWFD, and a group of his colleagues, wearing ceremonial dress, carried the silver, flower-topped casket into the church, from a black hearse that arrived around 4:15 p.m.
The entire South Florida University baseball team, for whom the deceased’s older brother Steven Jr. plays, was also in attendance. Jonathan also loved the sport, and wore his number 7 Key West Conchs jersey with pride.
Many tears were shed at the funeral, but there were also glimmers of camaraderie and love, at the outpouring of support and sympathy the Wells family has received since the April 10 incident.
One speaker reflected on the “paradox” that drew so many people to an unthinkable event they neither anticipated, nor wished to see take place.
Some levity was provided when the speaker led the bereaved in a rousing Conchs baseball chant of “Let’s Go Key West, Let’s Go.”
The speaker then reached out to the whole community, asserting that “nobody ever wanted anything like this to happen to Jonathan,” even though he rounded life’s bases in just 14 year. “We must never forget him” and move on from “an accident which we all regret,” he added.
Another speaker noted the “great honor to our community” the massed mourners represented.
Again the crowd was led through the baseball cheer, before church personnel then walked out of the church to offer Holy Eucharist to all who wished to partake in the sacrament.
In the funeral program the Wells family expressed “sincere gratitude to all those who have come near and far to support us during this time of loss, and stated that “Our wish is that you do not have tears of sadness but smiles of joy from memories of Jonathan that you can share with us in the days to come.”
At press time, the police investigation into the incident remains “technically open”, according to spokeswoman Alyson Crean, but was put on hold for the funeral.

 

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