I woke up this morning and the first one I thought about was little Caylee. As I poured my first cup of coffee, in my heart I kept feeling that surely the grandparents of this precious child won’t steal this day from her. I got settled in front of my computer after getting Simon’s cigarette lighter so I could light my candle in honor of Caylee and I said a prayer. I thought to myself today is for you Caylee.

I watched the service on CNN’s Headline News. The first thing I noticed was that the church didn’t seem as packed as Brad Conway predicted it would be. Later I read reports that it was only like about 1200 or so people that attended, not the several thousand that they expected to show up.

I got through what seemed to be a very nice beginning of the service with the singing and the sermon from the preachers. Then the part came that I was dreading. Suddenly while the grandparents, Cindy and George Anthony and the uncle, Lee Anthony walked on stage I got this huge knot in my stomach, like you get when you just know something is about to go wrong.

Lee Anthony spoke first. He got choked up during his speech but the part that got me was he kept calling Caylee CMA and not Caylee which led me to wonder was he even talking to Caylee. The more I listened to his words it was as if he was talking to his sister and not Caylee. He said, “CMA I miss you. I love you. CMA I’m so proud of you I hope you are proud of me too. I will never forget.”

At the end of his speech he said CMA I will never forget my promise to you. (Well I am not sure if that was his exact words but it is close enough to get my point across) At that moment I thought to myself OK here it goes. I knew it was not going to be about Caylee from the grandparents and Uncle.

Next was George with his speech. He started out saying, “I am proud to be the grandfather of Caylee Marie,” He said, “It’s God’s day, its Caylee Marie Anthony’s day today” I so agree with that part. It should have been just Caylee’s day. I enjoyed parts of his speech although I knew he just couldn’t leave his daughter out of this one either. He had to go and ruin it by asking people to pray for his daughter Casey and then he urged them to write to her in jail to give her their support.

Next it was Cindy Anthony’s turn. OK I physically got through listening to Lee and George Anthony but I honestly got sick listening to Cindy on that stage. She wasn’t talking to Caylee. She was talking to Casey Anthony instead.

Cindy said, “I remember the day Casey came to me to tell me the news I was going to be a grandmother. I knew that our lives were going to be blessed.”

And then it started with her. “Mostly the things I missed is watching the love she shared with her mother. Casey I hope you’re able to hear me today. I love you and wish I could comfort you right now… take away all of your pain and wipe away your tears.” (What tears? Casey doesn’t shed any over her daughter or her family, only for herself)

She went on talking to Casey instead of Caylee. She said, “Caylee was so much like you. She had your beauty and compassion. Your spirit and she will always love you.” (That was the part that got to me.)

They are praising this woman, the same woman that didn’t even bother to ask to watch the service on TV. Instead she chose to spend that time with her sleazebag lawyer at the jailhouse. I can picture Baez consoling her to make sure someone in the jailhouse could see her appear to be the grieving mother.

I was going to write this earlier but I held back until I could calm down. Quite frankly I am afraid my words would have sounded like our good friend Sean Krause in here. I was so mad. I don’t normally use that kind of bad words but I sure was thinking them this time.

As I was looking around on all the web sites talking about the service this morning I ran across one with a lot of pictures taken at the service and I came across one picture that shocked me. Does everyone remember the billboard that George Anthony used to drive around Orlando from Kidfinder’s Network? Well they had that Billboard parked in the parking lot in front of the church. It has pictures of missing children on it with the caption at the top saying, Please Help find Us! Now my eyes are getting bad but from what I can see it looks like Caylee’s picture still on there with a heart around her. Just above her picture it has In Memory of Caylee Marie Anthony. They couldn’t keep this day for just Caylee. They had to advertise for Kidfinder’s as well. To me they have sunk to the lowest level now.

Well in my home it was for Caylee. My candle was lit and my prayers were for her. I even spoke to her silently from my heart. For the readers in here it was for Caylee. The sad part is that is seems to me that the people that cared most about today being for Caylee were the ones that never had the pleasure of meeting her in person. Caylee we love you and we know you are safe now. God bless you honey, we will never forget you!

Jan Barrett

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