UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand (AP) — Grief-stricken families prayed Saturday at a Buddhist temple filled with children’s keepsakes, flowers and photos of the smiling toddlers who were slain as they napped on blankets at a day care center in northeastern Thailand.
Coffins containing the 36 killed, 24 of them children and most of them preschoolers, were released Friday and placed inside Wat Rat Samakee and two other temples in the town nestled among rice paddies in one of Thailand’s poorest regions.
Several mourners stayed at Wat Rat Samakee overnight in the tradition of keeping company for those who died young.
“All the relatives are here to make merit on behalf of those who died,” said Pensiri Thana, an aunt of one of the victims, referring to an important Buddhist practice. She was among those staying the night at the temple. “It is a tradition that we keep company with our young ones. It is our belief that we should be with them so they are not lonely.”
The massacre left no one untouched in the small town, but community officials found helping others was helping assuage their own grief, at least momentarily.