Grace Sulak memorial: ‘To see this (gym) filled up is incredible, but she deserves it’

While hundreds of Grace Sulak’s friends, family members, classmates and neighbors gathered Wednesday night to share memories of the 14-year-old killed in a hit-and-run crash last week, there are some memories her twin sister is keeping for herself.

Fighting through tears at Sulak’s memorial service inside the packed-to-the-rafters Bluffton High School gymnasium, Faith Sulak said, “Everyone doesn’t have to know all of our secrets — you’ll forever be a part of me.”

Faith said her sister — a River Ridge Academy student also survived her parents, Heidi Hanson and Kristin Sulak — was “by far the funniest person I know.”

“There wasn’t a time when we wouldn’t be laughing,” she said. “... (Grace was) the closest thing to perfect in my eyes. (She was) kind, pretty, smart and every good adjective you could think of.”

One after another, Sulak’s friends and family stood at a podium before the crowd of nearly 1,000 to echo Faith’s sentiment.

“To see this room filled up is incredible,” Hanson said. “But she deserves it.”

“I guess this is what you get when you’re a good person,” she said, referring to the outpouring of support from the community.

Bluffton High student and “American Idol” sensation Lee Jean was on hand at Wednesday’s memorial.

He said while he didn’t know Sulak, he understands the family’s pain. Jean’s older brother, DJ, was killed in a 2012 car accident.

Seated in front of the crowd with an acoustic guitar on his lap, Jean performed “Heart’s on Fire” by Passenger while too many people to count openly wept.

While the Bluffton community paid its respects, the other two people in the car during Saturday’s wreck — Sulak’s friend, Emma Dewey, and her mother, Andrea Dewey — remain in the hospital.

Andrea Dewey was driving the teens back to Bluffton from a track meet in Columbia Saturday around 5:45 p.m. on I-26 in Calhoun County when their vehicle was involved in an accident with a driver who fled the scene, according to the S.C. Highway Patrol.

Hanson asked the people gathered at Sulak’s memorial to “keep Emma and Andrea in your prayers.”

While the Deweys recover, Sulak’s family is left scrambling to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.

“The last four days have been the hardest, saddest days of my entire life,” Hanson said. “But that’s because the past 14  1/2 years have been the absolute best part of my life because of Faith and Grace.”

Lucas High: 843-706-8128, @IPBG_Lucas

This story was originally published May 11, 2016 at 9:20 PM with the headline "Grace Sulak memorial: ‘To see this (gym) filled up is incredible, but she deserves it’."