By Guy Kelly

Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

Monday was the toughest of days for Lauren Townsend's friends and family.

But the life Lauren lived helped them get through it.

"The very essence of Lauren lives on, and with us," the Rev. Bill Selby said Monday as more than 1,000 people said goodbye to the radiant 18-year-old Columbine High School senior who died in the violence last week.

Even though her friends and family hugged and wept, they also celebrated a life they said was about love, laughter and light.

"People say that Lauren was a victim," said her brother Matt, 25. "I don't think of her in that way. The ugly thing that happened last Tuesday, they couldn't conquer her beauty."

Lauren's coffin Monday was covered with flowers and messages of love and hope, the feelings her friends say she inspired in them.

Through a video prepared by another older brother, Josh, images of Lauren and her life filled Foothills Bible Church -- dancing, laughing, learning to walk, hugging a whale at Sea World -- pictures of a life full of energy and promise.

Lauren was headed to Colorado State University. She wanted to be a wildlife biologist, but that was just one of her dreams.

"She was a marvelous sketch artist," Selby said. "She had sketched her own wedding dress -- one for summer and one for winter, just in case."

And she was a scream, always joking, playing tricks and fooling around with her pals.

"I remember her always laughing," Angela King said. "She made me laugh so hard."

They laughed Monday, recalling how Lauren would scrape a big spoonful of icing from a cake and gulp it down, or how, with that solar smile, she could melt anyone who was mad at her.

Lauren was the complete package, they said. So athletic, she was captain of the volleyball team. So smart, she was a member of the National Honor Society. So talented, teachers used her to sketch three-dimensional illustrations on chalkboards.

And just a joy to be around.

"I don't think we should be sad," friend Rachel Danford said. "We should be happy we knew her."

She was the kind of teen-ager kids loved to have as a baby sitter, a trait that wasn't lost on Lauren's math teacher, Lori McMullen, who had her baby-sit her kids.

Lauren inevitably showed up with a backpack full of movies for the kids to watch, and they would make forts from chairs and blankets to play in. Not long ago, Lauren brought McMullen's children stuffed animals, little lambs that McMullen said her kids have been clutching to help them cope with the tragedy.

"Lauren was one of those rare gems," McMullen said.

No matter how eloquent, no one at Monday's service could adequately convey what a bright, warm and caring presence Lauren was in people's lives, teacher Tom Tonelli said.

"There's not a speaker, poet or singer who could express how beautiful Lauren is," he said.

And while there was beauty on the outside, Lauren also was an intellectual force, with interests that ranged from Shakespeare to science and beyond.

"How many people have never gotten a 'B'?" Tonelli said.

Despite the violence that took so many lives last week, Tonelli told Lauren's friends not to doubt the existence of God, or love.

"She was proof of God's love," he said. "I long to see that awesome smile again."

Her brother, Josh, laughed about the good times they had together, the silly videos they made about their dog, and their "action thriller" video that had the fate of civilization hanging on their ability to make a sandwich in the family kitchen.

"I love my sister," he said. "Not only that, I like my sister."

There is one thing mourners can do to honor Lauren, Selby said -- "make gentle our bruised world." He suggested that schools form "Lauren Groups," in which people talk about their lives and how they are alike, not different.

"May Lauren Groups spring up all over the world," he said.

Indeed, in her short life, Lauren brought together people from different backgrounds.

Lauren had an extended family, with stepbrothers and stepsisters. And Lauren was the glue that bound them together, stepsister Kathy Johnson said.

"She was the best little sister in the whole world, an angel on Earth. I know she's looking down us now," she said.