A great calm floated in from the Atlantic as Kilclooney girl Jenna Shovlin was laid to rest today.
The 31-year-old, formerly of The Rock, Clogher West, Portnoo, passed away suddenly in Manhattan, New York almost two weeks ago.
St Conal’s Church, Kilclooney was packed-to-overflowing as mourners came from near and far to south west Donegal to say a final farewell at her funeral Mass.
Her heartbroken brother Keith told mourners that Jenna was “the light of the family”.
“We are indebted to this community for what everybody has done for the past 12 days,” he said. “It has been overwhelming and has helped us come through the loss of our beloved sister.
“Jenna was the light of the family. She was the one you could call. She was there at the end of the phone, night or day.
“It’s a bit like the analogy about springtime: Jenna was a bit like a flower and some flowers blossom sooner than others and they get picked”.
Fr Philip Daly told the congregation that the tragic news of Jenna’s passing was akin to the scene depicted in the Gospel of Mark where Jesus calms the storm while on a boat with his disciples.
Fr Daly said: “He said to the waves, ‘Quiet. Be still.’ Then the wind dropped and it was completely calm.”
Jenna, described as “gifted” by the chief celebrant, worked as a production assistant with Warner Studios in New York.
She worked on films such as Tick, Tick…Boom!, The Instigators and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
A movie script was among the gifts celebrating her life that were brought to the altar during the service.
A family portrait, a model airplane, her gym gear and a bottle of Holy Water also rested beside her coffin. The Holy Water from Inishkeel island marked her love of home.
“She was very much a Kilclooney girl,” Fr Daly said. “She was born and raised here. She was baptised and confirmed in this parish.”
She had been to China, lived in France, England and the United States having obtained a degree in Galway, but home was very much where her heart was. Indeed, as her coffin was taken to the adjoining cemetery, the sounds of My Donegal’ filled the Church.
Fr Daly recalled how she worked in the Cope and in the Lakehouse Hotel and how she “had that natural charm that drew her into every conversation. Jenna reaching out to people was effortless and communication was a natural part of her personality.”
Fr Daly said that Jenna’s death “stirred up feelings of heartbreak” given that she died in the springtime of her life and that her’s was a “life incomplete with lost opportunities”.
“It contradicts death as spring is the season where nature is singing, showing us rebirth after winter”.
Death, Fr Daly said, was often blind and deaf, as is the case with Jenna’s passing.
He said: “Blind in not looking to see if a victim is young or old, healthy or weak; Jenna was both young and healthy. Death was deaf to the cries of her family, who would have loved more time with her.’
Among the mourners were her parents, Frankie and Kathleen, brothers Christopher (Tanya), Keith (Hannah), nieces Lilly and Jodie. They were joined by a large crowd of friends, many of whom travelled long distances from abroad.
“What added to the awfulness of the news was that Frankie and Kathleen couldn’t hold Jenna in their arms; it’s what we want to do when a loved one dies,” Fr Daly said. “Time and distance stopped that.”
The last two weeks have, the priest added, been a time of “numbness, shock and pain” for her bereaved family.
He said: “The thoughts and the mind jumping here, there and everywhere, wondering: What if? We hope that the prayers calm the storm that encircled them and bring some kind of sacred, holy calm back into their shattered lives.”
