Family Viewed Michael In Open Casket

The night before the world paid tribute to Michael Jackson during the memorial service, close family members viewed the entertainer's body in an open casket at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills.

"He looked like himself. He looked like he just was laying there sleeping," says David Fossett (50) a cousin of Jackson's who grew up with him and still lives in his hometown of Gary. "He looked peaceful."

Relatives gathered around the casket, "talked to each other and cried" during the viewing. Michael's parents, Katherine and Joe, were not among those gathered, but after the viewing, mourners went back to the Jackson home in Encino.

"It was a somber mood," Fossett says. "Even though he's this big entertainer, he's still our family."

Fossett and others stayed the night. Tuesday morning, the family had a quick breakfast and then got into their vehicles for the convoy to the 30- to 40-minute private service. About 70 relatives and friends gathered at Forest Lawn, where Michael's cousin Wendell Hawkins conducted a Jehovah's Witness service. Fossett, who is not a Jehovah's Witness, describes the service as "spoken in a way that their belief is that he [God] is going to be back on this earth."

During the service, John 3:16 was read, the Biblical passage that speaks to God so loving the world that he gave his only son, and Ecclesiastes 9:5, which refers to the living knowing they will die, but the dead being conscious of nothing.

Michael's three children were crying during the service.

"They lost their father," Fossett says. "They were sad."

But the kids were comforting each other, holding each other's hands and hugging, and in turn were being supported by family, he says. "All of us were comforting each other."

During the private service, Michael Jackson's casket was closed, with a spray of flowers on top, the same ones as seen at the public memorial service at the Staples Center.

Source: MJFC / People