A basketball court in the Dominican town of Haina became a makeshift chapel Thursday, hosting funeral ceremonies for two dozen residents whose lives were abruptly cut short when a nightclub's roof collapsed with hundreds of people inside.
Two at a time, coffins were carried onto the court and placed on tables lined with white cloth.
The caskets were topped with photos and personal belongings of the victims, and flanked by loved ones who listened attentively to successive, short ceremonies -- two victims at a time.
Many of the bereaved broke down, inconsolable two days after the tragedy that claimed more than 200 lives.
The unlucky ones did not manage to escape when the roof of the Jet Set club -- a 50-year-old institution in Santo Domingo -- collapsed while popular merengue singer Rubby Perez sang to an adoring crowd in the early hours of Tuesday.
Perez, 69, and retired Major League Baseball player Tony Blanco -- both of whom hailed from Haina -- were among the dead.
Blanco was among the victims memorialized at Thursday's ceremony in Haina, which was attended by hundreds.
Perez was given a sendoff in a private ceremony at the National Theater in the capitol Santo Domingo earlier in the day that was attended by President Luis Abinader.
At the entrance to the basketball court hung a large banner with the names and photographs of the deceased. A nearby placard with an image of a peace dove read: "With immense pain, Haina bids farewell to her beloved children."
Rows of mourners filled plastic chairs to share in the community's grief.
Among the mourners was Santo Jose German, who lost four relatives.
"A pain that doesn't subside," is how he described his emotional state.
"I didn't want to believe it was real, but it is. Life is lost in a second," he said.
During the service, blessings were pronounced by priests waving incense, for two coffins at a time, accompanied by the trumpet sounds of music teacher Felix Silvestre.
He had to stop playing several times to cry.
"You have to find strength where there is none because people died there, people I grew up with since childhood, many people," he told AFP.
With several interruptions, he performed the tune "Cuando un amigo se va" (When a friend leaves), in honor of his late friends.
"It's hard, but it must be done."
The director of the local school, 59-year-old Fernando Nina, attended the ceremony to bid farewell to acquaintances.
"Describing it as a hard blow would be an understatement; this disaster really touched sensitive fibers of our municipality," he said.
"It's incredible how three, four and even five members of a single family died. There is an atmosphere of sadness and a lot of sorrow" in the community, said Nina.
