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Sarah McKenna RIP
Yonkers, New York
The death has taken place of Sarah McKenna, nee Guighan,
Yonkers, New York.
Sarah was born in the townland of Cartronbeg in 1923,
the second of a family of seven
born to James and Brigid Guighan.
She lived and worked in Edinburgh for a number of years before her uncle, Peter Flynn,
arranged
for her and her brother Johnny, to travel to the United States.
Johnny went on to
Chicago, but Sarah stayed in New York.
There she got a job as a switchboard operator with the New York Telephone Company.
She
was still working as a switchboard operator when she retired in 1989.
Sarah never lost contact with her family back home.
She was constantly in contact
with her sisters Mary and Lizzie and her brother Mickey in Drumkeeran,
and with her
sisters Rosie and Tessie, in Manchester.
She was also a very active member of the Leitrim Society of New York
and served as
its secretary when her uncle, Peter Flynn, was its president.
Her husband, John McKenna was a native of Drumkeeran.
He and Sarah first met before
she went to Edinburgh.
As things turned out, they would both meet up again in New
York.
They got married in 1957 and settled in Brooklyn.
Sarah was totally devoted and
totally dedicated to caring for John
and to looking after their daughter Mary.
And, in later years, she was equally devoted to her grandchildren.
Sarah was a woman of deep and strong faith,
a faith that helped her cope with some
very sad moments in her life;
the loss of her brother Johnny in 1972 and the loss
of her husband John in 1975;
then in 1992 the death of her sister Mary
and in more
recent times the deaths of her sisters Lizzie and Rosie.
All of these came as difficult
blows to one who placed so much value on her family connections.
It was her strong
faith that gave her the strength and the courage
to come through those very sad and
difficult moments in her life.
Her last visit home to Cartronbeg was only 3 years ago when, at the grand age of
87,
she came back to celebrate her brother Mickey’s 80th birthday.
Sarah died in New York on Sunday, June 30.
It was because of Sarah’s deep love for
home that Mary and the family
decided to bring her home for her funeral Mass in Tarmon.
The large attendances at both the removal on Thursday evening, July 4
and the Funeral
Mass on Friday
bore eloquent testimony the high esteem in which she was held
by the
people of the area.
Sarah was laid to rest in Drumkeeran Cemetery.