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Dad of 2 who died in Michigan fire: Strength stems from sons

Community members dressed in hockey jersey in honor of Logan and Briggs Connolly make their way into St. Paul on the Lake Catholic Parish in Grosse Pointe Farms for a pray service, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2019. Eleven-year-old Briggs and 9-year-old Logan Connolly died Monday, Oct. 28, after a blaze broke out in their Grosse Pointe home, just east of Detroit. (Junfu Han/Detroit Free Press via AP)

GROSSE POINTE (AP) — The father of two boys who died in a Detroit-area house fire said through tears that his community’s support is what’s keeping him from falling apart, referring to the hundreds of mourners who went to the boys’ prayer service.

Logan, 9, and Briggs Connolly, 11, died Monday after a blaze spurred in their Grosse Pointe home. The cause of the fire is under investigation, though authorities have ruled out arson.

On Wednesday, more than 700 people packed St. Paul Catholic Church in Grosse Pointe for a prayer service, some of whom wore hockey jerseys to symbolize the boys’ love for the sport. Two jerseys bearing the boys’ names were propped up by hockey sticks on the church’s alter.

“I can tell you what’s holding me up — every one of you,” the boys’ father, Walter Connolly, told the filled church, adding that his strength “stems from my sons’ strength.”

Connolly thanked the teachers, coaches and friends who he said enriched the lives of his sons, who had been in the fourth and fifth grades.

“Right now, my boys are concerned with taking care of the people in front of me,” Connolly said through tears, “and the people who made them laugh.”

Connolly asked the crowd to pray for his sons’ teachers who helped build their confidence, and for their coaches “who fostered their love for hockey.”

He also asked for prayers for his sons’ friends, with whom they played and laughed.

“Every day I would ask my sons, ‘What are you going to do today?” And they would say ‘Learn, have fun and try my best,” he said. “All that matters is they can look in the mirror and say, ‘I did my best.'”

As for the fire, “I cannot tell … why or how this happened,” he said.

The Rev. Jim Bilot reassured him that the boys aren’t alone.

“Sometimes, the body can’t handle what hits us, but our guardian angel protects our soul,” Bilot said.

Bilot addressed the boys’ family sitting in the front row, saying their grief could have kept them away but instead “courageously set an example.”

“You are a model for all of us with your faithful act of walking toward this instead of walking away,” Bilot said.

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