Family, friends express continuing pain at vigil of losing Corinne Gump, grandparents

YOUNGSTOWN

Sky lanterns floated upward into the sky, seemingly reaching up to 10-year-old Corinne Gump and her grandparents, William and Judith Schmidt, at the end of a candlelight vigil tonight on the site of the home in which they died in an arson a year ago.

The Schmidt home on Powers Way was demolished last November to remove a daily reminder of the tragedy. But a sign on a large tree that remains at the front of the lot reads: “Forever In Our Hearts Corinne Gump and Bill and Judy Schmidt.”

Other thoughts on the sign erected by the Mraz family are: “Gone Too Soon,” “Never Forgotten,” and “Rest in Heaven Precious Angel.”

“It’s hard to find words. It means a lot to Corinne and my parents that you are here tonight,” Lynn Schmidt, mother of Corinne and daughter of the Schmidts, said to the estimated 125 adults and children who attended the vigil.

“There was a lot of love and laughter in this house. My parents were loyal and had integrity. Corinne was a smart, loving, beautiful little girl,” Schmidt said of her daughter.

“The pain is unbearable ... it doesn’t get any better. You think you can’t go through something like this, but you stand for them, so you do,” she said of her daughter and parents.

Read more remarks from friends and family in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.