The life of Co Donegal teacher and mother-of-two Dawn Croke was celebrated at her funeral Mass on Monday just yards from where she died in a tragic accident.
Ms Croke, from the town of Dungloe, was killed after she was struck by a jeep in the schoolyard of the local St Crona’s National School on Thursday evening last.
Her last act in a life of putting others first was to push away from the moving vehicle the six-year-old daughter of her partner Patrick McHugh.
Hundreds of people crammed into St Crona’s Church in the west Donegal town to say farewell to one of their own.
Before her funeral started, symbols of her life were brought to the altar. They included some make-up, socks, a swimming hat, a CD and the sash she wore in 2008 after being chosen as the Dungloe Mary in the Mary from Dungloe contest.
Her younger sister Emily, supported by their father Tony, explained to the congregation the meaning behind each object.
An accomplished swimmer, Ms Croke was head lifeguard at the local Carrickfinn beach for 10 years. She loved being comfortable, her sister remarked, and kept a pair of cosy socks in her car for journeys and a spare pair in her handbag.
A number of rings represented her love of jewellery and how she liked to look smart, Emily said. However, the most important of these rings was the engagement ring her partner Patrick put on her finger on Friday night last after she had died.
“He wanted Dawn to go to heaven carrying it with her,” Emily said. It had marked “the start of her dream to become a real family”.
A picture of the teacher’s two boys, Jason and Callum, was also brought to the altar.
“She has made the world a better place by leaving these two beautiful boys here,” her sister said.
Community support
Her father Tony said he, his wife Ann and the family, thanked local people for their support, and the emergency personnel who he said “fought a hard battle” to try and keep his daughter alive.
Among the congregation were President Michael D Higgins’s aide-de-camp, Comdt Paul O’Donnell, and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s aide-de-camp, Comdt Caroline Burke.
Fr Pat Ward told the congregation: “For the Croke family, and for Patrick, life had changed that day. It was a terrible thing to have happened, a terrible thing for this family to endure and our hearts go out to them.
“Every parent knows that they need to comfort their children, they need to love their children and I know that last Thursday so many people went home and hugged their children that night. They knew something had changed in the whole town.”
It would not be fair to remember Dawn as somebody who had just died tragically, he continued.
“Dawn was beautiful. She carried her beauty with great grace and with great poise but her beauty wasn’t just her external looks. Her beauty was also within her. It was all that she was, it was her personality, her care for others,” he said.
Towards the end of the funeral Mass, Dawn's own voice filled the church as a recording she made of Adele's Make You Feel My Love was played. The recording had been a Christmas gift from her to her parents but she had made them promise not to play it outside of their house.
“We kind of broke that promise today,” said Fr Ward.