An intimate mass was held Wednesday night in Egan Chapel in memory of Maureen McAvoy ’10 who passed away after a long-term illness. Father Jim Mayzik led the mass starting off with comforting words for the crowd.
“Tonight we gather as a family to Maureen and celebrate the great gift she’s been to our family,” said Mayzik. Although McAvoy was only at Fairfield for the fall semester of her freshmen year, she made a lasting impression on those she met. Vivian Carballo ’10 met McAvoy on their floor in Regis and shared fond memories at the mass.
“I think she radiated so much beauty and youth. She was always so happy and never down,” said Carballo. “Always a great girl to talk to.”
“I know I’ll never forget that happiness. I know she’ll be watching over us for the next three years,” she said.
During one of the lighter moments of the mass, Jamie DeStefano ’10, who knew McAvoy from preschool through college, shared a humorous story from their past.
DeStefano described his “prom night from hell,” which McAvoy turned around.
As DeStefano walked down a parkway, dressed in his tux, he was suddenly greeted by a van in which McAvoy and a friend jumped out of wearing ski masks and toting a sheet. The two wrapped DeStefano up in the sheet and threw him in the van, kidnapping him for the night.
Although DeStefano made the crowd smile, he also shared some advice.
“Never miss an opportunity to get close to a good person,” said DeStefano.
Fellow math major Meredith Moses ’10 said both she and McAvoy “bonded over our distaste for math” and would often joke about why they chose to be math majors.
In her closing remarks, Moses said, “She’ll be whispering answers in my ear but this time we won’t get caught.”
Friends of McAvoy will remember her authentic personality, a characteristic that many admired.
“When she was happy she smiled and when she was mad you knew it. She was a genuine person and the first person at Fairfield I genuinely liked,” said Stephanie Robles ’10..
Robles also expressed McAvoy’s lighthearted side. “She was quirky, nerdy and it was great,” said Robles.
Jackie Lividini ’10 was McAvoy’s freshmen orientation roommate and became friends when school began. She recounted times the times when she would ask McAvoy for help with her math homework, only for McAvoy to jokingly question how she got into college.
Lividini said even when McAvoy found out she had brain cancer, “nothing brought her down.
She told a story where McAvoy jokingly said the timing of her sickness was perfect because now she could tell her parents about a speeding ticket she got without them being mad at her.
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