Mom: Electrocution victim had 'big heart'

Family buries 14-year-old Glynn County girl killed in electrocution accident

GLYNN COUNTY, Ga. – Family and friends came together Friday in Brunswick to lay to rest a 14-year-old girl killed when she was accidentally electrocuted.

Kayla White died July 5.

"She's just been a wonderful, wonderful kid, and I wouldn't trade a minute of it for nothing," Kayla's mother, Laura White said.

Loved ones have left behind a memorial for Kayla right down the street from where she went to school and the place she called home.

Friday, those same loved ones celebrated the teen's life at her funeral.

With arms locked and ribbons pinned on in honor of Kayla, her sister, father and mother sat together an hour before her funeral and talked about how the reality of what happened last weekend is still setting in.

"It's going to be so hard when all of this is all over and we go home and there's nobody around," Laura White said. "I mean, that's when it's really going to hit us."

Investigators said Kayla was walking on wet grass in her backyard Sunday when she touched a metal shed and was electrocuted. Wiring from the shed had electrified the wet ground.

Her sudden death stunned the entire community.

Her family reflected Friday on the impact she made on so many lives.

"It just seems like she's touched everybody," Laura White said. "I mean, she just had such a big heart. She always took up for the kids that would get picked on. She always stood up for them."

One by one, mourners of all ages filed into the sanctuary to pay their respects.

Kayla's casket was covered in hand-written messages from friends and family, saying their final goodbyes.

All this as Kayla's family works to come to terms with its new normal.

"It's been hard, but we feel at peace about it. Me and my husband, we've sat up for hours and hours and hours and talked, wondering where to go next, what to do next without her," Laura White said.

Kayla's family stresses how thankful they are for the medics who responded to the accident and for all of the people who have shown their support to the family during this time of mourning.

Laura White said they're moving forward, taking their life without Kayla one day at a time.

The Whites said they don't have life insurance or savings to pay for burial costs and have set up a GoFundMe account.