Emotional service for flood victim

SHE was known for her smile. But friends and colleagues of Celia Ferrer de Jesus, who was tragically drowned when her basement flat was flooded, united in tears at her funeral yesterday.

Some 300 mourners packed into the tiny chapel at Our Lady’s Hospice in Harold’s Cross yesterday for a requiem service for the 58-year-old nurse who left her family in the Philippines to take up a job in Ireland a decade ago.

Among the congregation were Irish and Filipino work colleagues from the hospice.

A male colleague, Frox Froilan Sta Maria, broke down in tears as he attempted to sing a Filipino hymn, He Will Carry You, in honour of Celia.

Our Lady’s Hospital chaplain, Fr Brendan McKeever, later explained how Frox and his accompanist, Marlon Almonte, had maintained an overnight vigil with Celia’s coffin.

Another friend, Lyn Baltazar, was unable to complete a reading of the prayers of the faithful as she too wept.

In a poignant homily, Fr McKeever told mourners that Celia’s death had upset the community. “It has been a week of great sadness in the hospice and around the globe in the Philippines,” he remarked.

He recalled the dead woman’s smiling face and her love of travel, especially her delight “as a woman of great faith” in making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land last year.

The chief executive of Our Lady’s Hospice, Mo Kelly, said Irish people, with their history of emigration, shared the loss felt by the Filipino community with the sense of isolation and distance from loved ones at such a tragic time.

She read out a number of messages from former patients as well as President Mary McAleese which paid tribute to a care worker known for her smiling disposition.

Miguel Esmande smiled as he explained how Celia was known among her friends as “our princess” because she was the only female among a group of 10 Filipinos who travelled together to Ireland in 2001.

In an emotional eulogy, he described at how happy Celia was when she first found out the salary she would earn at Our Lady’s and how much it would help to support her family back home in the Philippines.

On behalf of Celia’s husband, Angelito and son, Michael Kevin, who were unable to travel from the Philippines, a family friend, Jerome Aguilar expressed gratitude to her friends and colleagues as well as the civil authorities.

Staff from the hospice formed a guard of honour as the coffin bearing Celia’s green uniform and two roses was carried in a hearse from Our Lady’s on its way to Dublin Airport before making its final journey to her home in the Philippines.