Older people came in the clothes of mourning, but the college students came in the clothes of life, many in pink, as family, friends, dignitaries and well-wishers celebrated the life of Dru Sjodin on Wednesday.
UND's Chester Fritz Auditorium was darkened, its stage set with a black grand piano, pink flowers and pink tulle, a single candle on the piano. Two podiums stood ready to host the long list of speakers: North Dakota Gov. John Hoeven, UND President Charles Kupchella, Grand Forks Mayor Mike Brown, fellow students, friends, loved ones, family. UND's Concert Choir and Cheryl Saunders performed.
After a piano prelude by UND student Rachel Crooks, Sjodin's extended family entered from the side and filled two rows in the center of the auditorium. Sjodin's mother, Linda Walker, had her husband, Sidney, on one side, and Dru's father, Allan Sjodin, on the other.
It was the same kind of solidarity, same kind of unity, that resonated throughout the 90-minute memorial. Many of the speakers, including Kupchella, Brown and UND Student Body President Jordan Schuetzle, talked of how the tragedy brought the community together.
Kupchella spoke of promises fulfilled and unfulfilled, how Sjodin "reached out from her photographs and grabbed us all. She was the friend we'd all like to have."
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Many thanks
There were many thanks, too, from the family as well as law enforcement.
"The searchers gave us the gift of time," Polk County Sheriff Mark LeTexier said. "We said, `We need you to be our eyes and legs.' We thought maybe 500 people - but 1,300 came. We said we needed ATVs and hoped for several hundred, and 470 came.
"Thank you for your gift of time. Your words of compassion. Your prayers."
Private investigator Bob Heales thanked the countless volunteers, law enforcement and even strangers in restaurants who saw the much-photographed family and left "blank checks to pay for our dinners" during the five-month search.
Many spoke, too, of the future and Sjodin's legacy.
"She doesn't want you to live in fear," Heales said. "She wants you to be aware of your surroundings. ... Dru has come home. God bless you all."
The most evocative speeches came from Sjodin's relatives and her boyfriend, Chris Lang.
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"Dru, I know you can hear me," said her stepfather, Sidney Walker. "I had the privilege and pleasure of helping raise you since you were 5 years old, and I never heard anyone say a bad word about you.
"You never left the house without saying `I love you.' And Dru, I love you, too. If I'm lucky enough to get where you are, I'll be seeing your great smile, and you'll say, `Hi, Sidney,' and give me a big hug."
Lang began his emotional speech by telling the audience that Sjodin was a "lovable goofball."
"I would say to her, `Dru, you have the face of an angel and the laugh of the devil,'" he said, drawing laughs. "That booming laugh. We can't hear it anymore, but it will resound in our hearts and become our music forever."
Sjodin's parents spoke only briefly, thanking everyone for the effort to find their daughter.
Linda Walker quoted poet Maya Angelou: "I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it."
Tree planting
After the service, family and friends participated in a ceremonial planting of a linden tree in front of the Chester Fritz.
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A plaque near it reads:
UND
In loving memory
Dru Sjodin
April 28, 2004
"In angels' arms."
One mourner left a single pink rose at the base of the tree. There were no buds on it Wednesday, but each spring, it will wear pink blooms.
