SAD FAREWELL TO A PRECIOUS PAIR OF SISTERS

The note, pinned to a bouquet of flowers, read: "You gave me 20 years, it should have been until all three of us were old."

Yesterday, more than 200 mourners gathered to say farewell to sisters Lena Ring, 25, and Margaret Kensett, 20, at their funeral in Brighton. They were killed when the car in which they were passengers crashed into a lamp post on Brighton seafront a month ago.

Both chapels at Woodvale Crematorium were packed, with dozens standing at the doors listening to the sisters' favourite music selected by their family.

Appalling

After the service, father Lennie, whose nephew Jay Kensett was murdered in Whitehawk seven months ago, said: "It was a beautiful service, but all this is so terrible.

"I cannot believe that seven months ago I was here to say goodbye to my nephew Jay, who was stabbed to death. And now I am here again. It is appalling. I just cannot believe what has happened."

Margaret and Lena's mother Maggie and their sister Nathalie, 23, were comforted by friends and relatives as they said their final farewells.

Their day began at the family home in Foredown Road, Portslade, where more than 20 members of the family gathered to greet two stunning horse-drawn carriages carrying the coffins of mother-of-four Lena and Margaret.

The immaculate black glass carriages were pulled by two horses, decorated in black velvet with black feather plumes.

Inside, each coffin was decorated with a simple white flower heart and a picture of the sisters.

Behind the carriages were two hearses filled to the brim with floral tributes. In one, yellow chrysanthemums spelt Lena, with two more tributes saying Wife and Mum.

In the second hearse, similar yellow flowers spelt Margaret and Auntie.

At 12.50pm, the procession started its slow journey to Woodvale, escorted by two police outriders. Travelling at no more than ten mph, the carriages moved along Old Shoreham Road, followed by several cars carrying Lena and Margaret's distraught relatives, including their grandmother, Ellen.

Screen

The procession's passage was eased by the police escorts who stopped traffic along the five-mile route.

Waiting at the crematorium was a large and sombre crowd of more family and friends as the carriages arrived at 1.05pm. Many openly wept as the coffins were taken from the carriages and into the North Chapel, which was reserved for the closest family members.

The South Chapel, like the North, was full. A television screen and speakers were set up to relay what was being said during the service.

Nine of Lena and Margaret's favourite songs were played throughout the service, led by the Rev David Pavitt.

The service opened with Whitney Houston's powerful I Will Always Love You and continued with current nightclub tune Two Times, by Ann Lee. It was among the songs the sisters' would have danced to on the night they died. They were coming home after a rare night out in Brighton when their Rover car lost control and smashed into a lamp post. The spot is still surrounded by flowers.

Other songs played during the service included Cyndi Lauper's classic Girls Just Want to Have Fun and R Kelly's If I Could Turn Back Time, chosen by Lena's husband Jez, after whom Lena named the couple's fourth child.

Caring

Mr Pavitt read tribute messages from the women's parents, who described Lena as someone who loved her family more than anything in the world. Margaret, they said, was an incredibly caring person, dubbed Mother Superior by her school teachers for the way she cared for new pupils. She was also a strict vegetarian, who said she would never eat anything with a face.

Mourners sang the hymn Rugged Cross before the committal of Lena and Margaret, conducted to the stirring music of Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli's Time To Say Goodbye.

As each coffin was taken through, cries of "Goodbye Lena" and "Goodbye Margaret" rang out from speakers placed outside the chapels, piercing the cold autumn air.

Mr Pavitt closed the service by reminding the congregations of the Lena Ring and Margaret Kensett Memorial Fund, set up to help pay for the funeral and the on-going cost of raising Lena's four young children, Lauren, seven, Demi, five, Chantelle, 18 months, and Jez, nine months.

The congregations then left the chapels to the Puff Daddy song I'll Be Missing You.

Family members gathered to look at dozens of bouquets and read the personal messages pinned to each one.

Parents Maggie and Lennie wrote to their daughters: "You've taken my heart with you, you've taken the light from my soul. It will not light again until I see your face and hold you again."

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