PUPILS lined the streets to bid farewell to friends today as the funeral cortege of a grandmother and her two grandchilden passed silently by.

Seventy five-year-old Emma Nelson and the grandchildren she adored - 15-year-old Rebecca Marshall and Michael Wright, 13 - were found dead last week.

It is believed they inhaled fatal carbon monoxide fumes from a water heater at their grandmother's home in Berry Street, Burnley.

The cortege first passed Michael's school, Gawthorpe High, Padiham, where year nine students and teachers lined the road.

Then it passed Rebecca's school, Towneley High, were silent year 11 pupils in their bright red sweatshirts bowed their heads and remembered their friend who was to have been made an assistant prefect this term.

In a poignant service at the Salvation Army Citadel, Rebecca's form tutor Mrs Sue McDonald gave a moving tribute to the "quietly confident" pupil who entered the school in August 1993.

She told a packed church: "At our last sports day Rebecca seemed to be limping around the track.

"Off went the first aid party, with much concern, only to find that she had lost her trainer on the way round - being Rebecca she had just carried on running.

"I really missed Rebecca last Friday when it was our annual fun run. I kept waiting for her to appear as a St Trinian's schoolgirl with her hair in bunches and painted on freckles or as a waitress complete with tray and glasses."

Mrs McDonald told the congregation of family, friends, school pals and representatives of both schools: "I know we will all miss Rebecca and will continue to do so. I also know that the grief we are feeling will lessen, life will continue but we will always have our memories of a special person. As Rebecca would say: 'It's reet.'' The address was followed by the reciting of Christina Rossetti's poem Remember which concludes: "Better by far you should forget and smile than you should remember and be sad."

Deputy head of Gawthorpe Len Thomas read a specially composed poem entitled "Michael - Upon Reflection" to the congregation as well as saying a few words.

He was accompanied at the service by head teacher Trevor Nowell, teacher Miss Julie Grimshaw and 25 members of Michael's class 9W.

After the service, the cortege travelled to Burnley Cemetery where Michael, who would have been 14 on Monday, was buried with his grandmother. Rebecca was buried nearby.

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