‘Aaron was well known and he was well loved’

Aaron’s parents Jim And Susan and his siblings Samantha and Ryan were joined by his immediate family and friends in St. Columba’s Church in the Long Tower on Friday.

The young Derry man died suddenly in Altnagelvin on Tuesday after taking ill the day before. Addressing mourners in front of a photograph of a smiling Aaron on his valedictory day at St. Joseph’s, Fr. Gormley acknowledged that for his family this week must feel like a ‘bad dream’ and that the ‘reality has yet to be unfolded.’

Yet despite the heartbreaking circumstances of Aaron’s death his Requiem Mass was a celebration of his life.

“God makes himself present in and through human beings. Aaron was a unique gift from God,” said Fr. Gormley. Mourners heard of a young man who despite being diagnosed with the debilitating condition Cushing’s syndrome at the age of just eleven refused to let the illness define him.

Fr. Gormley referred to how his father Jim had told him that Aaron was a ‘privilege to know as a child’ when he met him after his death on Tuesday.

“To hear those words said something of your relationship together but also the way in which Christ was working in you and through you both even though your hearts were breaking,” he said.

Aaron passed away some time after testing positive for coronavirus and as such his death was classified as COVID-19 related. However, Aaron’s father Jim told this newspaper that Aaron tested negative for the illness prior to his death, that he had an underlying health condition, and that as far as his family were concerned he had died from heart failure.

Fr. Gormley alluded to some of the unwelcome media focus that followed Aaron’s death this week.

“You all have shown great dignity in the face of much pressure and difficulty in the very fact of Aaron’s death but also in all the circumstances surrounding his death,” he said.

Aaron was a ‘golden boy’ who had a ‘heart of gold’. After his schooling at Nazareth House Primary School and St. Joseph’s Boys’ School he wasted no time in getting a job.

“Aaron was his own person. He went out and he went out to work. He could easily have said, ‘I’m not going to do it.’ Many people in this town knew him from McDonald’s, many people knew him from his short time in Creggan...He was well known and, as we know from the last couple of days, well loved.”

A football fanatic, he was a familiar face on Friday nights at the Brandywell, though Derry City weren’t his only team.

Fr. Gormley explained: “I know Celtic, Liverpool, Everton and Ireland were four teams he supported. He said at least one of them would win some day. You have some beautiful memories. The one you told me yesterday, Jim, about going to the races and him winning five races on the trot and you thought at least you might get a pint out of him but he said, no, six euro a pint was too much for him to spend!”

Aaron didn’t allow Cushing’s to define him or determine how he lived his life. He bore it with an incredible spirit, the congregation was told.

Fr. Gormley explained: “One of the things that has really struck me over the last 48 hours or so is the way in which Aaron allowed himself to continue to live life even though he suffered from Cushing’s disease, a disease that would eventually take his life. Because I don’t know, at 11 years of age, to get an illness that would limit yourself, I know if I got word I don’t how I would react but God worked in and through Aaron and helped him to carry that illness with great joy. No matter what he had to go through he faced it.”

He derived great ‘strength from his family’ and was selfless and thoughtful to the end.

“Aaron never thought of himself. Even the other morning before he died he was trying to get in contact with you in the hospital. It wasn’t about him. It was always about his family. That’s from God. That’s a sign of God when we don’t think of ourselves and are reaching out to others, where we are not saying ‘poor me.’ That is a sign of God.”