‘It doesn’t make sense that I won’t see you again’
Mourners packed Abbeystrewry Church in the centre of Skibbereen town yesterday, marking the death of the 22-year-old who seemed to have packed a lot into her young life before it was ended in a devastating car crash in the early hours of Monday.
The incident also left one of her friends fighting for life in Cork University Hospital.
Meg’s mother Val was brought to the front pew in a wheelchair as she is recovering from an illness. She remained seated for much of the service until, with some defiance, and with the aid of a walking stick and friends, she was able to walk out of the church behind the coffin that carried her only child.
It was a service which recalled the life and adventures of the former Mercy Heights student, and illustrated the absence such a death can bring.
Two friends, Stephanie and Maria, compiled a number of personal messages written to Meg by those closest to her.
In one of those messages, Stephanie mentioned Kate Petford, another 22-year-old local girl injured in the crash.
“Our dear friend Kate could not make it today,” she said, “but we all know what a fighter she is and she has the most amazing angel looking over her now.”
Other messages recalled the games Meg and her friends played when they were younger, including soccer in the local field.
Another message told how she has been an amazing “auntie” to baby Aaron who, without her, would probably still be “baby no name”.
Each message seemed to begin with a different pet name for Meg — Magnum, Megsy Magsy, and so on.
The tributes continued, from the breaking of a radiator in a friend’s house, aged 13, to ending up at the wrong airport in Frankfurt and working in Australia.
“You are our rock and our silver lining,” one message read.
“It doesn’t make sense to me that I won’t see you again,” read another.
“I know you would not want us to be so sad but, when somebody so amazing as you is taken from us, it’s understandable,” the congregation was told. “My heart is broken with the thought I never got to say goodbye.”
The Very Rev Dean Christopher Peters said Meg’s death had resulted in “an overwhelming sense of loss”. He later referred to Meg having twice gone to Romania to work in an orphanage there and how “she was precious to those who knew and loved her”.
“Tragedies like this affect the whole community,” he said. “It reminds us how fragile life is. It also reminds us, sadly again, of the dangers of our road.”
He mentioned the pain, confusion, questions, and sorrow wrought by such an event, and all of those were writ large on the faces of Meg’s friends Aisling Creedon, Tara Lynch, and Sheenagh Hegarty as they sang the Lighthouse Family’s song High. By the middle of the song, the tears had come and the trio hugged each other for support.
The same emotions were there in the voice of Paudie Fahy, Meg’s cousin, as he sang Ed Sheeran’s A Team. Then Meg’s coffin was carried out, her father Steve among those shouldering it, and mother Val following.
Even the bells seemed muffled by the slow rain falling outside, the music most definitely over.
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