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The mosque was full and the messages were stark Monday night in Dearborn.
"If there's anything we can take away from these five caskets, it's that life is short — life is a privilege," said a business partner of Issam Abbas, killed with his wife, son and two daughters in a fiery I-75 car crash. The speaker, attorney Ali Abdullah, is quoted by Bill Laitner of the Detroit Free Press.
This last vacation snapshot, posted Thursday from Florida, shows Issam and Rima Abbas with son Ali, 14, and daughters Isabella, 13, and Giselle, 7.
He reports on an Islamic Center of America service that drew an estimated 2,000 mourners to the mosque on Ford Road:
In the front row of the stark white room were Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly and Chief of Police Ronald Haddad.
Speaker after speaker spoke of the goodness of the family: Issam Abbas, 42, a real estate agent; his wife, Dr. Rima Abbas, 38, a doctor beloved by her patients, and their children Ali, 14; Isabella, 13, and Giselle, 7. . . .
Abdullah went on with his eulogy: "So live your life like it’s a privilege, and give back, like Issam and Rima. . . . This is a true tragedy."
The Northville family was heading home from a seaside Florida vacation when their SUV was hit head-on early Sunday in Lexington, Ky., by a pickup heading south on the northbound side. Police say its driver, a 41-year-old Kentucky man who also died, was drunk.
Dr. Abbas practiced family medicine in the Beaumont Medical Center in Garden City. She's a 2006 graduate of Wayne State University's medical school. Issam was an attorney and real estate agent.
Both parents grew up in east Dearborn, friends tell The Detroit News.
The victims will be interred in Arab Gardens of Westland after a funeral today at the Islamic Center, co-founded by Dr. Abbas' grandfather. Relatives suggest donations to Mothers Against Drink Driving.
A candlelight observance is planned Friday evening at Ford Park in Northville.
All three children attended Northville Public Schools, where Ali was in the eighth grade, Isabella in seventh grade and Giselle in second.
Here's Fox 2 Dertroit coverage Monday night:
