As a young boy, David Goodman was at times awkward and not especially good at any one thing, his older brother Mark remembered Saturday.
When asked as part of a kindergarten project what he did best, David was momentarily stumped."He couldn't color or run or sing very well," Mark, 14, said during funeral services for brothers David C. Goodman, 12, and Peter M. Goodman, 11, and sister LeAnne Goodman, 10.
But as Mark and his mother Claudia tried to think of something David did particularly well, Mark recalled, young David made a re-ali-za-tion.
"Suddenly a light came on in his eyes," Mark said before bursting into tears. "And he said, `I love people.' "
Ultimately, David did become adept at certain things. His singing ability matured so dramatically that a Los Angeles talent scout recently declared the boy's voice better than Donny Osmond's.
"David had that Hollywood look," family friend Craig Frogley told the Deseret News.
But it is the love that David, Peter and LeAnne poured out into the world - whether on stage as part of the Goodman singing group, in community, school or church activities, or as members of what friends call one of the most joyous families they've ever known - that endeared them to so many. They will not just be remembered, their mother said, but cherished as though the accident that took their lives never occurred.
"We don't feel like we've lost these children," Claudia Goodman told an overflow crowd of 1,200 at the LDS Church's Sandy Crescent Stake Center. "They're still here. They're still a part of this family."
The three children died last Sunday as they traveled home from church with two of their sisters and their father, Steven. The subcompact Steven Goodman was driving was struck by a pickup truck at the intersection of 11400 South and 700 East. David, Peter and LeAnne were pronounced dead at the scene.
Andrea Goodman, 15, remained in critical condition and in intensive care Saturday at a local hospital with heart, spleen and liver damage. Aimee Goodman, 8, was listed in serious condition with head injuries and spleen and liver damage.
Steven Goodman suffered broken ribs, a punctured lung and scalp lacerations, and spent several days in shock trauma intensive care. His condition was upgraded to satisfactory on Friday, and he was able to attend Saturday's funeral services.
Goodman sat semi-upright in a mobile hospital bed at the front of the stake center auditorium as his wife and three of their 12 children paid tribute to David, Peter and LeAnne.
Peter, too, was full of compassion, said 19-year-old sister Christy. When she would come home after a week of classes at Brigham Young University, Peter would insist on giving her a hug for each day she had been away.
"I often wondered how Peter could love me as much as he did," Christy said, her voice elevated with emotion. "Sixth-grade boys just don't do that."
And LeAnne, although sometimes overshadowed by younger sister and best pal Aimee, was never jealous or angry with anyone, 18-year-old sister Julianne said.
"She loved people," Julianne said. "She never sat by you, she sat on you."
Christy Goodman said Peter wrote an autobiography two years ago. In it, he said there were several places he'd like to live - Utah, Colorado, Russia and heaven.
The Goodman family's singing prowess, well known locally, took them out of the country last summer. They performed at a United Nations conference in Istanbul, Turkey, and last month performed for Pope John Paul II at the Food Summit in Rome.
A publicity flier for the Goodmans' recording "Fortress of Love" asks, "Is your family fortress strong enough?" and invites potential listeners to hear original songs "celebrating the family as the most fundamental and important unit of successful civilization."
Claudia Goodman said her family's togetherness and strong religious faith has helped them turn a time of sorrow into a time of joy.
"If we seem happy, I guess we are," Claudia Goodman said. "We know that it was their time to go, that they've completed the missions they were sent here to do."
LDS leaders praised the family for their examples of courage and love. President Thomas S. Monson, first counselor in the First Presidency of the LDS Church, said no one can go through life without coming face-to-face with difficulties and challenging situations. The test of courage, he said, is how we handle those situations.
Prior to the funeral, President Monson said, Goodman insisted on lifting himself out of his portable bed and kissing the cheeks of David, Peter and LeAnne. Goodman gave each of them a farewell sermon and told them to "work hard," Monson said, adding that it won't be long until they meet again.
Facing the deaths of loved ones in such a way, "that is real courage," Monson said.
Internment at Larkin Sunset Gardens followed the funeral.