Journeying to Beverly Washington’s townhouse in University Park, located far south of Chicago, was part happy escape, part confusing venture into the suburbs, her city relatives joked Tuesday.
“Going by her house is like going on a vacation. … it would almost take us two hours to get there. Sometimes we’d almost get lost. It’s all in the woods,” her nephew, Bennie Walker, told mourners Tuesday.
He remembered a home where the doors were always open, the jazz sounds were sweet and the movie collection was filled with just-released flicks.
On Dec. 4, an early morning fire claimed that home and the lives of Washington, 50, and her granddaughter Brianna Gervais, 10. Two of Washington’s adult children escaped by jumping from a porch roof. About 200 people gathered Tuesday morning at the Full Gospel Christian Assemblies International Church in Hazel Crest for the double funeral and shared memories of the child who loved staying with her grandmother.
“My mom was just the most open, non-judgmental person in the world. Her house was always open to anyone,” said daughter Toyia Washington. “My niece could light the whole room up with her smile.”
Firefighters found the remains of Beverly Washington, a retired telephone company worker and mother of four, and Brianna together in a bedroom.
An investigation by the state fire marshal determined the 4:18 a.m. fire was accidental and began in the kitchen. The cause was most likely electrical and might have started with a cord to the stove, said Patti Thompson, spokeswoman for the fire marshal. The home did not have smoke detectors.
Washington is survived by her husband of 30 years, David, and their four children, including Brianna’s mother, Toymesia Walker.
A teacher at Illinois Elementary School in Park Forest said Brianna, a 5th grader, was a bright student and a role model to her peers. She was on the honor roll.
Brianna and Meghan Beecher, 11, became fast friends when the girls met in kindergarten and shared a 5th-grade homeroom at Illinois Elementary School. On Tuesday, Meghan read a poem at a lectern behind the two caskets: Washington’s a creamy pink and Brianna’s white with silver and pink trim.
Both girls played the clarinet, but Brianna had a better knack for remembering notes, Meghan said.
“She was always there when I was sad,” Meghan said after the service.
Amber Johnson, 11, Brianna’s cousin, remembered arguing about who would lick the cupcake batter from a bowl on Halloween before they agreed to share the treat.
Bennie Walker, who also is a minister at Indiana Avenue Pentecostal Church of God in Chicago, recalled the frigid morning when family members gathered outside the charred townhouse.
“That Sunday morning, we stood waiting in the cold for two long hours, and when they gave us the news, we all broke down in mourning,” he said, but soon happy memories helped to ease the pain. “Within a few hours, the Lord blessed us to laugh.”
———-
tmaxwell@tribune.com
