NOTHING CAN STILL LITTLE RORY'S HOWL OF HEARTBREAK
Nothing can still little Rory's howls of heartbreak
By MARTINA DEVLIN
THE boy's wails echoed across the graveyard - great gulping sobs of anguish. Rory Marlow shivered, drenched to the skin, by his sister's coffin and howled inconsolably.
His father Joe stroked the nine-year-old child's face and whispered to him but Rory's misery could not be stilled.
He tottered the few steps to Jolene's open grave, clutching her yellow Gaelic football jersey, and gazed longingly in after her coffin. You could not imagine a more pitiful sight.
The family of five huddled yesterday in an Eskra cemetery in Co Tyrone oblivious to the pelting rain, and within seconds their clothes were plastered to them.
Then Joe Marlow spread his arms wide to shelter his wife and three sons and the youngest, Niall, shrank back into the protection of his mother's open jacket.
Now Paul (12) was also sobbing aloud and Bridie led aside her son and his six-year-old brother. But Rory would not be budged - he stayed by the grave for a few minutes more, while his father held him, sighing, and seemed to wonder if the child would ever be prised away.
A relative nearby whispered: "Rory loved Jolene, since they brought her back to the wake house he hasn't left her side. He climbed onto the bed where the coffin lay and kept patting her hair and kissing her.''
And as the rain lashed relentlessly, publican Joe (40) turned aside, murmuring: "Jolene's happy.''
He was referring to a country saying in these parts: "Happy the corpse that the rain falls on.''
More than 1,000 mourners gathered for teenager Jolene Marlow's funeral, a service videoed by the family to show later to a daughter who could not attend.
Nickie Marlow (15) is recovering in a Belfast hospital from the serious injuries she suffered in the Omagh blast that killed her 17-year-old sister.
Jolene's interests were reflected in the Offertory gifts which included her camogie boots and stick, the Tyrone county football cup her team won just last week and a family portrait of all seven Marlows.
The service ended with a recording of her favourite song, Can't Live Without You, and her father helped shoulder her coffin along a youthful guard of honour.
Lining the path outside St Patrick's Church were her team-mates in their camogie and football strips, uniformed children from her brother's primary school holding white carnations and classmates from Loreto Convent Grammar School in Omagh.
Like Jolene, these girls were waiting for A-level results that are due out today. Parish Priest Fr Terence Connolly told how Jolene, killed when she met her sister for lunch, hoped to study physiotherapy at the University of Ulster in Belfast. He called her a "holy innocent'' and referred to her throughout as "Our Jolene''.
Inside the modern, circular church people were jammed so tightly there wasn't a breath of air. A teenage girl in the same football jersey that draped Jolene's coffin was carried out fainting and Fr Connolly interrupted his ceremony to appeal for a doctor.
By MARTINA DEVLIN
THE boy's wails echoed across the graveyard - great gulping sobs of anguish. Rory Marlow shivered, drenched to the skin, by his sister's coffin and howled inconsolably.
His father Joe stroked the nine-year-old child's face and whispered to him but Rory's misery could not be stilled.
He tottered the few steps to Jolene's open grave, clutching her yellow Gaelic football jersey, and gazed longingly in after her coffin. You could not imagine a more pitiful sight.
The family of five huddled yesterday in an Eskra cemetery in Co Tyrone oblivious to the pelting rain, and within seconds their clothes were plastered to them.
Then Joe Marlow spread his arms wide to shelter his wife and three sons and the youngest, Niall, shrank back into the protection of his mother's open jacket.
Now Paul (12) was also sobbing aloud and Bridie led aside her son and his six-year-old brother. But Rory would not be budged - he stayed by the grave for a few minutes more, while his father held him, sighing, and seemed to wonder if the child would ever be prised away.
A relative nearby whispered: "Rory loved Jolene, since they brought her back to the wake house he hasn't left her side. He climbed onto the bed where the coffin lay and kept patting her hair and kissing her.''
And as the rain lashed relentlessly, publican Joe (40) turned aside, murmuring: "Jolene's happy.''
He was referring to a country saying in these parts: "Happy the corpse that the rain falls on.''
More than 1,000 mourners gathered for teenager Jolene Marlow's funeral, a service videoed by the family to show later to a daughter who could not attend.
Nickie Marlow (15) is recovering in a Belfast hospital from the serious injuries she suffered in the Omagh blast that killed her 17-year-old sister.
Jolene's interests were reflected in the Offertory gifts which included her camogie boots and stick, the Tyrone county football cup her team won just last week and a family portrait of all seven Marlows.
The service ended with a recording of her favourite song, Can't Live Without You, and her father helped shoulder her coffin along a youthful guard of honour.
Lining the path outside St Patrick's Church were her team-mates in their camogie and football strips, uniformed children from her brother's primary school holding white carnations and classmates from Loreto Convent Grammar School in Omagh.
Like Jolene, these girls were waiting for A-level results that are due out today. Parish Priest Fr Terence Connolly told how Jolene, killed when she met her sister for lunch, hoped to study physiotherapy at the University of Ulster in Belfast. He called her a "holy innocent'' and referred to her throughout as "Our Jolene''.
Inside the modern, circular church people were jammed so tightly there wasn't a breath of air. A teenage girl in the same football jersey that draped Jolene's coffin was carried out fainting and Fr Connolly interrupted his ceremony to appeal for a doctor.
Further Information
Publisher: IRISH INDEPENDENT
Ref: II/067
Published Date: 20-Aug-98
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