Funeral of Kitty Owens
Celebrated by Very Reverend Gerry Powell P.P.
We gather here today in sadness with the family of Kitty Owens. Our thoughts are for you. We ask God to send his Consoler to bring his peace to your hearts and to your homes. We give thanks to God for the life that he gave Kitty and pray in faith that he will welcome her home to everlasting happiness in heaven.
There is as the Scriptures remind us, a time for every season under heaven. As we gather in Gilford Church we reflect on the mystery of time and providence that are in God’s hands: there is indeed a time to die, a time to weep, a time to mourn, a time to keep silence, a time to speak, a time to love.
Holding a vigil for Kitty in her home her nieces and nephews have shared memories of who she was and what she meant to them. We mourn her passing, we cherish her memory. Above all you have remembered the humanity of a good person. Today as we gather in sorrow to remember Kitty. A burden of pain, burden of loss, burden of grief weighs heavily on you all. We gather as a community - our presence here today is our way of reaching out to all who loved her.
Catherine, better known as Kitty, was born on 20th December 1924. She was the youngest child of Harry and Annie Owens, in a family of nine – 6 brothers (John Joe, Billy, Harry, Paddy, Frank and Barney who died in infancy) and two sisters Annie and Eileen.
She lived at 102 Hill Street, Gilford, Better known as ‘Keady Row’, and she attended St. John’s Primary School in Gilford
After leaving school, Kitty went to work in Gilford Mill, in the footsteps of her brothers and sisters. When she retired from the mill, she was presented with a glass clock as a token of her long service in the flax preparing room.
She loved to go the dances with her friends, in Johnny McDowell’s taxi, to the Calypso Ballroom.
Kitty also enjoyed a little punt on the horses.
Kitty very rarely missed going to Mass in St. John’s Church and was a daily communicant right up to the last couple of months when her healthy deteriorated. She will be sorely missed by her extended family - she was the last of her generation.
We remember a lovely person, a lady who was a treasure to you all. Letting go of her today is not going to be easy for Kitty was a great lover of family, people and life itself. Thank you to all who cared for her and loved her in life. Now her long life is over. As Kitty has died now a part of you dies as well. You are filled with sorrow because her death leaves a gap that no-one else can fill adequately. When we remember her today we cannot help recalling the things she said and the way she said them, the things she did and her way of doing them but sadness is tinged with hope and expectation. We pray that she is with the Lord and we look forward to the day when we will be reunited with her. Christ’s resurrection assures us that if we follow him we will rise again. It is only with death that life really makes sense, it’s our leap into eternity, it is God calling us home to be with him forever. At a time like this we come face to face with our own mortality.
Living a truly Catholic life is about waiting in hope and as people of hope we believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Kitty’s period of waiting is now over.
She brought love, care and friendship to those who knew her. Always faithful to her Church, prayer and fidelity to the mass and the sacraments were second nature to her. She died after her strength could no longer meet the challenge of life. Today then we bid farewell to Kitty. Despite your sense of loss, you will face the future with courage and hope, knowing that that is what Kitty would want you to do. We comfort one another in the sure confidence that for Kitty life has changed, not ended. We also derive comfort from the conviction that she is at peace with God.
On behalf of the Parish community I extend our heartfelt sympathy to her loving nieces and nephews and extended family circle. RIP
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