Two Mumbai Victims Took 'Trip of Their Lifetime'

FABER, Va., Dec. 14 -- Hours before the memorial service began Sunday for a father and daughter killed last month in the Mumbai terrorist attacks, chants could be heard flowing through the tangle of trees that make up most of the Synchronicity Foundation's property. There, under the gaze of a garland-laden statue, in a private ceremony for family and friends, a Vedic Brahmin priest lit a flame made to burn permanently for Alan and Naomi Scherr.

"It is our most sacred spot," longtime Synchronicity member Mark Hayes said of the wooded area, adding that it's called the "shrine of the heart."

Eleven years ago, Alan Scherr, his wife, Kia, and their daughter, Naomi, left their lives in the Maryland suburbs to join the spiritual community. Alan, 58, and Naomi, 13, were on a pilgrimage with the group when they were fatally shot Nov. 26 at the Oberoi Hotel. It was a violent end to two lives rooted in seeking peace.

After the private ceremony, more than 150 people attended a public memorial service in a sanctuary on the property. Alan Scherr's brother, Marc Scherr, was among the first to speak.

"I did not know Alan in the national news stories," he said. "He was never a teacher or mentor to me, as I know he's been to many of you. . . . The man I knew was simply Alan, my brother."

He told how even at a young age Scherr followed his own tune, playing guitar when others played baseball and passing up the pool hall to rebuild radios.

"I used to think Alan was different, unusual, even weird," Marc Scherr said. "It wasn't until the day after he was taken from me that I saw another whole side of him."

He described Naomi as a shy child who had recently "really come into her own." The last time he saw her, he said, she was bubbling with excitement over the "Twilight" book series, the possibility of attending a New York boarding school and the trip to India.

"They went on this once-in-a-lifetime trip, and it became the trip of their lifetime," Marc Scherr said, his voice cracking. "I believe they are still on it. They are just seeing it from a different view."

Kia Scherr's sons from a previous marriage also spoke. Adam Butler read a condolence letter he had received, and Aaron Butler recited a poem he wrote hours after learning of the deaths.

"I don't have words for what to say. Everything has gone away," Aaron Butler said. "Why, why did it have to be you two?"

As they spoke, Kia Scherr and Charles Cannon, the founder of Synchronicity who is known as Master Charles, sat quietly next to each other, facing the mourners.