Elaine Coomer wanted answers.
When her 23-year-old daughter, Tangee, died from complications related to cystic fibrosis about 13 years ago, Coomer needed to know why.
Why do people die? Why do people suffer? Where did her daughter go after death?
Coomer said she got her answers when she became a Jehovah's Witness.
This weekend, Coomer was one of more than 6,000 Jehovah's Witnesses who came dressed in their Sunday best to the O'Connell Center for the religious group's annual convention.
"It feels like a family reunion," Coomer said in a soft, Southern drawl. She drove more than two hours from Waycross, Ga., with her 20-year-old daughter, Katie Coomer, to make it to the convention, which lasted Friday through Sunday.
About 1,000 of the attendees were from Gainesville, and the rest came from Georgia and parts of north and central Florida, said Warren Behr, spokesman for the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses.
The convention will repeat at the O'Connell Center this weekend starting Friday.
The Witnesses paid $7,500 to rent the center for each weekend, which is a little less than the standard rate because of the economic benefits that come with bringing thousands of people to town for three days, said Jeremy Cynkar, director of operations for the O'Connell Center.
The O'Dome was filled with people of all ages, including little girls in shiny, black shoes and frilly, white socks and older Witnesses in colorful sundresses.
Jehovah's Witnesses believe all religious teachings should come from the Bible and not human speculation or religious creeds, according to a pamphlet handed out at the convention.
This year's convention, titled "Guided by God's Spirit," focuses on how the Bible is still relevant and practical in dealing with today's issues, Behr said. A special emphasis was placed on young people and how the Bible can help them at work, school, in their home life and with their peers, he said.
"There are accounts of young people all throughout the Bible who go through things just like we do - it's just in a different time," Katie Coomer said.
The event was free and open to the public.
Elaine Coomer said she looks forward to the annual convention, which celebrates the religion that answered her questions about her daughter's death when other Christian religions left her unsatisfied.
"Now I have the hope of seeing her at the resurrection," she said. "Before I was wondering, but now I know."
