THE HEARTBROKEN friends of Kelly Lynch Gilroy have been urged to remember the happy times they spent with the 23-year-old, not the tragic circumstances surrounding her death.
That was the message from Kelly’s devastated parents, Julieanne and Seán, delivered by Fr Jimmy McPhillips PP at her funeral at Holy Cross Church in Lisnaskea on Friday.
Fr Jimmy said the Lynch and Gilroy families and Kelly’s loved ones had endured “a devastating week, an unreal week, nightmarish days with so many questions still unanswered and so much uncertainty still about her tragic death” the previous weekend.
However, he noted they had also been surrounded by “so much love” since her passing, and urged those who knew Kelly to hold on to “memories of happier times.” Fr Jimmy said Kelly had been a “devoted daughter, a doting sister, an adored granddaughter, niece, and loyal friend” and by sharing stories of her life “we have a little chance to balance the hurt and the anger over last Sunday’s terrible tragedy.”
He said the former St Ronan’s and St Kevin’s pupil “was amazing with children and particularly her siblings, her brothers and sister, and childcare was the direction she probably would have gone in.”
“She had a nurturing nature about her, that enabled her to go down to a child’s level,” he said.
“At home with family was all that she needed, even her extended family had such an impact upon her, particularly her grandparents who she simply adored.”
Noting her love of music, fashion, nature, ghost stories, and supernatural dramas, Fr Jimmy retold one of the many stories shared by those who knew her in the days following her death.
“One of the happier memories of her St Kevin’s days was her formal,” he said. “Somehow Kelly lost one of her shoes on the Main Street here in Lisnaskea, and the search for the owner of Cinderella’s shoe went out on the Cherry Tree Facebook page, who had found it outside their premises.
“An embarrassed Kelly Lynch was made to go in and retrieve the shoe.”
Finally, Fr Jimmy said before the funeral service he had asked Julieanne and Seán if they had a message for Kelly’s friends.
“They said, tell them to remember the fun times you had with Kelly,” he said, “All those things that now make you smile, and not the tragic way she left this life behind.
“Carry all those happy memories of her into your adult life.”
To read more on this story see this week’s Fermanagh Herald. Can’t get to the shop to collect your copy? No problem! You can download a copy straight to your device by following this link… Subscribe to current edition
Related posts:
To read more.. Subscribe to current edition
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere