STANDING arm-in-arm with his brother and sister, a man charged with killing his elderly mother earlier this week looked on yesterday as the elderly woman was buried in Tramore, Co Waterford.
Chief mourners at the funeral of Vera Vollrath (83), who was found dead in her bed at the Killure Bridge nursing home in Waterford early last Monday morning, were her daughter Anna and sons Paul and Gerard, along with grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other family members, friends and neighbours.
Gerard Vollrath (46) was charged on Tuesday night with the unlawful killing of his mother and was freed on bail, with an independent surety of €5,000 provided by his sister.
Mr Vollrath put his arms around his siblings yesterday at the Church of the Holy Cross in Tramore as they followed their mother’s coffin to the adjoining graveyard and watched as she was buried.
During the funeral Mass, offertory gifts of bread and wine were brought to the altar by Gerard and Paul.
Fr Michael Twomey reminded the congregation in his homily how Ms Vollrath, originally Vera Power, was baptised in the same church, made her first Holy Communion there, was confirmed and later married there.
“She was born in Tramore and grew up in her parents’ house and pub on Market Street, along with her brother Tom, who later became a priest and served for many years in England,” Fr Twomey added.
When she met Paul Vollrath, a German sailor who landed in Ireland after the second World War, they “instantly fell in love”.
They later travelled around Ireland, living in Cork and Dublin as well as spending some time in Fermoy, before settling back in Tramore in 1974.
Deeply involved in the community, she was a founding member of the musical society and also sang in the church choir, to a standard which her friends thought to be professional in all but name.
A devotee of Lyric FM, she was delighted in 2005 during the Tall Ships Festival in Waterford when some of the staff from the radio station visited her in hospital, dressed as the Pirates of Penzance.
“Losing Paul suddenly, some 16 years ago, was, of course, a very sad loss in her life but she filled those years with her love of her family and community and friends,” Fr Twomey said.
Among the symbols displayed in the church as reminders of Ms Vollrath’s life were a picture of one of several dogs she called Blackie, some sheet music and opera CDs to symbolise her love of music and a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help to whom she was devoted.
It was a “life well-lived,” as Fr Twomey put it.