Rebecca Jensen and Megan Drobny, both of Greenport, place flowers at a memorial for Kaitlyn Doorhy outside Mattituck-Cutchogue High School Saturday evening. (Credit: Jessica DiNapoli)
It’s not often that an obituary requests friends of the deceased wear bright, festive clothing to a memorial service.
Then again, it’s not often young men and women as bright and festive as Kaitlyn Doorhy enter our lives.
Ms. Doorhy, 20, was remembered by family and friends Saturday as a caring person who gave to others, even in the final moments of her life when her organs were donated to help save the lives of as many as eight people. She was killed after being struck by a car leaving her sorority house at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. shortly after noon on Friday.
In an effort to honor her life, the family of the Mattituck High School graduate and former Strawberry Festival queen requested that attendees at her memorial service “wear bright, festive clothing,” according to the funeral home.
“She was a rising star,” said a neighbor who spoke on behalf of her family at their home Saturday. “She didn’t have a bad bone in her body.”
As word of the college junior’s death spread throughout the community, friends gathered at Mattituck-Cutchogue High School, where a spontaneous memorial began to grow with flowers and photographs of Ms. Doorhy.
Molly Waitz started the memorial shortly after 3 p.m. She said she did so to honor her friend and to provide comfort for others by giving them a place to leave happy memories and flowers.
“Kaitlyn would not want to see us sad,” she said. “Think of her smile and pay a visit [to the memorial].”
Within hours several other friends joined in the tribute.
Jennifer McNamara of Mattituck, whose daughter went to school with Ms. Doorhy, brought a bouquet of flowers.
“She had a wonderful, wonderful future ahead of her,” Ms. McNamara said. “This is one of those moments that’s not real.”
The family spokesperson called Ms. Doorhy’s death “unimaginable.”
“She had everything going for her,” the neighbor said, adding that Ms. Doorhy’s parents were too distraught to speak.
The 2010 Strawberry Queen, Veronica Stelzer, helps Kaitlyn Doorhy during her coronation as Strawberry Festival queen in 2011. (Credit: Katharine Schroeder, file)
Ms. Doorhy was crossing the street with another woman at 12:30 p.m. when she was struck by a red Nissan Coupe heading north, according to a police press release. The other woman was walking ahead of Ms. Doorhy and police believe the car swerved to avoid hitting her, then collided with Ms. Doorhy, the report stated.
The driver, a 28-year-old Bridgeport man, cooperated with police and no charges have been filed, police said.
A spokesperson at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, where Ms. Doorhy succumbed to her injuries, offered the following statement Saturday.
“Our hearts grieve with the Doorhy family. There are thousands of individuals waiting for lifesaving organs or tissue,” said Brooke Karlsen, Vice President, Surgical Services. “We hope it provides comfort to Kaitlyn’s family and the Sacred Heart University community to know that Kaitlyn’s generous gift of life will save lives.”
At Sacred Heart, a prayer service was held Friday night with more than 700 students in attendance. University president John Petillo wrote a message to Ms. Doorhy’s classmates that was published on the school website Saturday afternoon.
“I think it is important that we continue to celebrate the beginning of a new academic year even as we grieve for the loss of Kaitlyn,” he wrote. “Everything I have heard about Kaitlyn — her caring for others, her dreams to be an attorney, the way she embraced life—tells me that she would expect this from us.”
The school has set up counseling for grieving classmates and a memorial mass will be held there next week, he said.
Local services for Ms. Doorhy, who is survived by her parents, Joseph and Darla, and her sister Carly, will be held this coming Thursday and Friday in Mattituck, according to her obituary. Visitors are invited to attend services Thursday, Aug. 28 from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at the DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Home on Main Road in Mattituck. A funeral mass will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Good Counsel R.C. Church. Interment will follow at Sacred Heart R.C. Cemetery in Cutchogue.
Memorial donations to Kappa Delta Sorority at Sacred Heart University would be appreciated, according to the funeral home, which is providing donation envelopes.