By Cynthia Koons
It was a somber funeral for Nancy McKiernan, who was killed outside the church Jan. 30 when a car hit her after it collided with another vehicle and backed into a crowd of churchgoing pedestrians at 9 a.m., police said.A beloved teacher at St. Kevin's school, McKiernan, who was in her 60s, is survived by her husband, daughter and granddaughter.”Mom would be so touched to see so many of you here to celebrate her life,” her daughter, Karen, said at her eulogy. “My mother treasured three things in life: faith, family and friends and they are all intertwined.”McKiernan grew up in St. Kevin's Church, having celebrated the sacraments of baptism, communion and marriage there before becoming a teacher at the pre-K-through-8 school.Karen said her mother had two sayings that she kept on magnets and in frames in her home and classroom: “Lord, help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me that you and I can't handle” and “Nothing is impossible for those who will and to those who love.””She dared (her students) to have faith in God,” Karen said. McKiernan was pronounced dead at New York Hospital Queens after the accident. On Sunday, Jan. 30, she was one of five people who were knocked to the ground after a car pulled out of a parking spot in the church lot at 45-21 194th St., hit another car and changed direction to plow into a crowd, police said.McKiernan was pinned between a car and a fence in the accident, police said, while the other victims sustained minor injuries.No one was arrested and no criminality was suspected.”This past Sunday her life came to a tragic and senseless close,” Karen said.She described her mother as a woman who loved traditions, found any reason to celebrate and enjoyed a beautiful, 33-year marriage to a man she referred to as her “rock.””Holidays were nothing short of a Broadway production,” Karen said. “She always told me, 'Details matter,' and they do.”Karen said her last words to her daughter were to let her granddaughter know how much she loved her.”Mom, thanks for giving me so many traditions, memories and notes in my lunch box,” she said.Reach reporter Cynthia Koons by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 141.
