Berwick funeral draws 700 Pink-garbed crowd honors stabbing victim

BERWICK – An overflow crowd of at least 700, almost all of them wearing pink, packed the Family Christian Center on Monday to pay last respects to Treasure Genaw, who was stabbed to death less than two weeks before she turned 18.

“I’m convinced Treasure is in heaven,” said the Rev. Al Robbins, pastor of the church that Genaw’s family helped found. “Once we get there, we’ll never lose our loved ones again.”

Genaw’s body was found beside a road in South Berwick last Tuesday, less than a week before she was to graduate from high school. Her ex-boyfriend Anthony O’Leary, 19, is charged with her murder.

Robbins said he has encouraged friends to draw positive lessons from Genaw’s death. His suggestions included raising awareness of domestic violence, spending time with family members and recognizing the power of religion in daily life.

Robbins delivered the lone eulogy at the 30-minute service, which began and ended in applause.

“I’ve never seen a funeral service that was more upbeat and celebratory,” he said.

A dozen pastors from churches as far away as Madawaska and Philadelphia began the funeral with a prayer asking God to help the mourners get through the service without breaking down in tears.

Ninety percent of Robbins’ eulogy focused on the joys of heaven and the duty not to waste the life we are given. In her senior yearbook, Genaw wrote that her pet peeve was seeing potential wasted.

“She had crammed more into 17 years than many of us of 70 or 80 years accomplish,” he said. “We better not waste her lesson.”

There were 200 people in the flower-filled room where Robbins conducted the service, including about 75 members of Genaw’s extended family. The church used closed-circuit television to broadcast the service to mourners in other rooms and outside the church, using nine TV sets. About 400 went to the graveside, Robbins said.

During the service, he asked mourners to raise their hands if they thought they had been Genaw’s best friend. Dozens of people did so, he said.

“She evidently, clearly, obviously had made them feel so special, no matter who they were,” Robbins said. “If anybody was an angel, it was this girl.”