Mourners at the funeral of Lurgan businesswoman Bernie O’Neill – who passed away at the weekend after a brave battle with cancer – have heard her described as a talented and courageous young woman who had so much to live for.
Family and friends gathered in St Peter’s Church in Lurgan on Wednesday morning to remember one who touched the lives of all who had the privilege to have known her.
The owner of Perfect Day Wedding Specialists in Lurgan, Bernie had, since 2019, been courageously battling cancer with a diagnosis of follicluar lymphoma.
Over the last few months, she had begun to share her journey through social media via her page ‘My Cancer Journey’.
The family have been left heartbroken after her passing at Craigavon Area Hospital on Sunday, but the messages on social media had brought comfort after the loss of one who was “so deeply loved”.
Mourners were led by Bernie’s husband, Ciaran, her father Seamus and her sister Noreen, as the presiding priest said the family had been left “deeply saddened and broken”.
In a fitting Requiem Mass, the celebrant prayed that their faith might be strengthened and their loss lightened.
“The death of our young people, and those who have so much to give and offer, is one of the hardest gatherings within our church and family,” he said.
“Bernie’s passing, so much in front of her, so much to live for, so much to give and it’s just so sad that her sickness has taken us from her.
“Today, in that sadness and brokenness, we commend Bernie to God’s mercy; a young woman who was successful, a very successful businesswoman, a wife, daughter, sister, an aunt, a friend, a colleague.
“Bernie was loved and, in turn, she loved others. Gone from us all too soon.
“We bring before God today her life, and the gifts that she had, her talents and her ambitions, her suffering, and her death from her illness. And we offer all of this, Bernie’s life, to Jesus, who has promised us that death does not have the final word. He has promised us eternal life, and to all those in our world today, He promises a life forever in His kingdom.”
God, said the celebrant, had given the gift of love, the gift of being able to choose to love, to do good or to break people’s hearts.
“We come, we pick our partners, we love them to death, we live our life with them, but then there comes to that point that death comes also,” he added. “Today we will mark and celebrate, in our own way, the good times, the beauty of nature and, at the same time, we try to make sense of the pain that Ciaran and Seamus and Noreen and the family are suffering today.”
The priest said the Bible did not say that the just would avoid suffering, or that the faithful would never walk in the valley of darkness.
“What it does say is that they are in the hands of God,” he added. “Bernie was in God’s hands, in the energy and the creativity of her work, her life, and she was in God’s hands in the hospital room, and in the long, hard months of her sickness. There was so much to live for.”
Bernie, said the priest, was intelligent and successful.
“She had great courage and the ability to build her own business with the help of Ciaran,” he told mourners. “She carried responsibility. She made decisions. She worked hard. She showed the way.
“Bernie will now see that perfect day at night that our heart and our soul long for until the end.”
The celebrant spoke of Bernie’s great love for her husband and for her family.
“Ciaran and Bernie had their great life together and they loved each other,” he said. “And Bernie depended so much, just like Kieran, on the knowledge of doctors and nurses and consultants who helped her, and I’m sure today, like all of us, they too are broken, for they were not able to do what they would have liked to have done for Bernie.
“We all depend on each other. We all need each other. We must devote our time as Ciaran and Bernie did to each other.
“Today we commend her soul to God, and we ask God to be merciful to her, and to console Ciaran, her father Seamus. We know today, with Noreen at their side, He will certainly help both of them to endure the days to come.
“Bernie will join her beloved mother, Eileen, whom she hid her own sickness from throughout her days. The love she had for her, and her father Seamus, meant that she didn’t want to bring any more burden to them.”
The priest also acknowledged those who had sympathised and paid tribute online after news of Bernie’s passing emerged.
“All those who took the time to go on social media, to express their deep sorrow and love, shows just how much Bernie and Ciaran were loved in this community,” he said. “So I do pray and I hope that together we can manage to support Ciaran and Seamus, and that somehow or another they will come to terms with the death of one so talented and so loved.”
To a beautiful rendition of You Raise Me Up, Bernie was taken from St Peter’s Church and laid to rest within St Colman’s Cemetery.
To her husband Ciaran, father Seamus, sister Noreen, and all of the family circle we offer our deepest sympathy at this time.
