A priest has told a funeral Mass he struggles to comprehend the pain that a family must be going through following the death of their 12-year-old son in a road crash in Co Limerick last week.
Wiktor Chojecki, who was originally from Poland but living in Newcastle West, was driving alone some 23km from home in his mother’s Nissan Qashqai when he collided with a truck at around 2am last Friday.
A small shrine of teddy bears, candles and floral tributes marks the scene on the N21 on the outskirts of Adare.
Wiktor’s younger sister Julia held her mother Ewa’s hand as they walked behind the coffin as it entered the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Newcastle West carried by six pall bearers including Wiktor’s father, Bart.
Ms Chojecki carried a framed photograph of her son, who the Mass heard had been taken from his family all too young.
Hundreds of mourners attended the ceremony, which was concelebrated in Polish and English by Fr Krzysztof Tyburowski, Canon Frank Duhig and Fr Dan Neenan, who administered the Last Rites to Wiktor.
Fr Duhig told Wiktor’s family that the entire community wanted to “convey sympathy” to them.
“Ewa and Bart, I know that your pain is great but I cannot say that I know your pain. Only parents who have lost a child at such a young age can know the pain you are carrying at this time,” he said.
“Ewa, only a mother who has tragically lost a child of her womb at such a young age knows your pain, and for me to say that I know your pain is to belittle that pain. Bart, you have lost the son you dreamed of seeing grow into manhood and carve out a successful career.”
‘Kindness’
He added: “There is one word that I heard within an hour of hearing of Wiktor’s death, that has been repeated many times about him by those who knew him well, and that word is ‘kindness’. In Irish we say ‘cineáltas’, and, kindness is a deeply Christian virtue that marks Wiktor as a true child of God.”
Fr Tyburowski told mourners that Wiktor, “one of the sons of our Polish nation”, had left the world in a dramatic way and that the Polish community was grateful for the support from “our Irish brothers and sisters”.
White floral bouquets were placed beside Wiktor’s coffin and pupils from Wiktor’s former school, Scoil Mhuire agus Íde secondary, sang hymns.
A tribute printed and passed to mourners included a black and white photograph of Wiktor alongside a poem entitled Afterglow, which read: “I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one. I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done. I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways, of happy times and laughing times and bright sunny days. I’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun; Of happy memories that I leave when life is done.”
More than €9,000 has been raised through an online fundraiser set up to support the boy’s family. Wiktor was buried at Calvary Cemetery, in Newcastle West following the Mass.