Leaving cert results heartbreaking for grieving family and friends

Áine Ryan

IT should have been a day of celebrations and while her loving family put on brave faces, the recent tragic death of Melissa Patterson came right back into focus when her Leaving Cert results were brought to her home last Wednesday morning by Ms Bernadette Rowland, the Principal of Davitt College, Castlebar.
The ‘football mad’ teenager died after sustaining serious injuries when struck by a car whilst walking at Carrownurlaur, Breaffy, Castlebar on Thursday, July 30. Weeks earlier, alongside her  identical twin sister, Belinda, she sat her Leaving Certificate with 127 other pupils from the Castlebar school.
Speaking last week after receiving her late daughter’s results, her mother, Carmel Cusack said: “I can’t believe she is not here to open them herself, she did so well.” She revealed that Melissa was going to defer college for a few years and had attended a job interview in the hospital, where she herself works, the day of the tragedy. Carmel Cusack told The Irish Independent that she was ‘so proud’ of her beautiful daughter who had lived ‘every day to the full’.
“She was mad into sport, she was determined, even on the pitch she would try and get all the girls together and never, never give up. Beautiful, beautiful girl, she was always happy and she took it day by day - nothing ever fazed Melissa. Belinda and herself were inseparable and also their sister Samantha was very close to both of them and also my son Eamonn, we’re a very close-knit family,” her grieving mother said.
She added: “We hadn’t much but we got on with the love we had for each other. We’d always analyse the football every time they had a game.”
A number of grieving Davitt College students availed of counselling last week, Ms Rowland confirmed, observing that they were a very close class.

The Melissa Patterson Memorial Fund
The Patterson family has established a fund to honour the memory of Melissa and help disadvantaged students to reach their full potential through sport. The Melissa Patterson Memorial Fund bank account is at Bank of Ireland, Castlebar, sort code 903744 and account number 20757510. Three thousand euro was collected on Saturday last at the Lahardane annual Fair Day for the memorial fund. Melissa’s grandparents live in the Lahardane area.