A coffin bearing the body of Victoria Soto is carried out of Lordship Community Church after her funeral service, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012, in Stratford, Conn. Soto was killed when Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Dec

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) – One by one by one by one, each with fresh heartbreak, hearses crisscrossed two New England towns last Wednesday, bearing three tiny victims of the Sandy Hook school massacre and a heroic teacher in a seemingly never-ending series of funeral processions.

“The first few days, all you heard were helicopters,” said Dr. Joseph Young, an optometrist who attended one funeral and would go to several more. “Now at my office all I hear is the rumble of motorcycle escorts and funeral processions going back and forth throughout the day.”

As more victims from the slaughter of 20 children and six adults were laid to rest, long funeral processions clogged the streets of Newtown, where Christmas trees were turned into memorials and a season that should be a time of joy was marked by heart-wrenching loss.

At least nine funerals and wakes were held Wednesday for those who died when 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza, armed with a military-style assault rifle, broke into the school last Friday and opened fire on their classrooms. Lanza also killed his mother at her home before committing suicide.

At St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, mourners arrived for Caroline Previdi, an auburn-haired 6-year-old with an impish smile, before the service had even ended for Daniel Barden, a 7-year-old who dreamed of being a firefighter.

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