Funeral of 4-year-old boy 1st of many for Indiana tornado victims

EVANSVILLE -- The final goodbyes for those killed in the deadliest tornado to hit Indiana in 30 years began Thursday with a slow walk past a tiny white casket that held a 4-year-old boy.\nMore than 100 people attended the funeral for Isaiah Blaylock, one of the youngest victims of the tornado that killed 23 people in southern Indiana on Sunday, including an unborn child.\n"It's just hard to believe that life could change so drastically, so quickly," Jessica Hendricks, Isaiah's mother, said before the funeral.\nIsaiah, his father, Brandon Blaylock, and two grandparents were killed when the tornado struck the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park on Evansville's southeast side 11 minutes after sirens warned the community of danger and two minutes after touching down.\nAn uncle, Chad Blaylock, was ripped from the home and thrown into a retention pond. He survived.\nThe boy had been staying with his father when the storm hit.\nHendricks, who was divorced from Brandon Blaylock, learned Sunday morning the mobile home park had been hit and spent the day searching for her son.\nShe found him in the morgue Sunday evening.\nThe Blaylocks lost more than any family in the park, where 18 people were killed. \nFunerals were scheduled throughout the weekend, including services later Thursday for Eastbrook resident William C. Skaller, 64, and Friday for other members of the Blaylock family.\nThe Rev. Mark Martin told mourners at Isaiah's funeral that the service was a step toward emotional recovery.\n"In our lives, things don't always go the way we planned them," Martin said. "But life is like a big jigsaw puzzle, and as we enter these circumstances, we're only able to see one piece"