Mourners to drop white flowers off bridge for tragic Elisha (14)
HUNDREDS of people last night paid tribute to tragic teen Elisha Gault in her hometown of Carrick-on-Suir.
The Junior Cert student, whose body was recovered from the River Suir last Sunday evening, lay in repose at her family home on New Street in the Tipperary town from noon yesterday.
Elisha (14) had vanished on St Patrick’s Day and was the focus of a massive eight-day search.
Yesterday, hundreds of people called to her family home to show support to her heartbroken parents, Gráinne and Cameron, as well as her sisters and extended family.
Elisha will be buried after an 11am Mass today at the Church of the Assumption in Piltown, Co Kilkenny.
Her cortège will leave her family home in Carrick-onSuir at 10am with Elisha’s coffin being flanked by her parents, siblings, relatives and friends.
The cortège will pause as it passes over Dillon Bridge – the last spot where Elisha was seen alive at 10pm on St Patrick’s Day – with mourners being asked to drop a single white flower into the river as a special tribute to the teen.
Elisha’s mother insisted she wants the service to be a celebration of her daughter’s life.
“My gorgeous, beautiful Elisha had a genuine soul...I have a hole in my heart that will never be filled,” she said.
She vowed to make Elisha’s funeral very special.
“We will carry our baby girl – I carried her into the world and I will carry her out again,” added Gráinne.
“We will make our way up to Dillon Bridge where we will take a moment to pause and reflect, and anyone who likes can throw a white flower off the bridge into the river.
“We want you all to celebrate her laugh – we want laughter and music because she so loved her tunes.
“(Elisha) always wanted to make everyone happy with her messing, so I want to end the day in that spirit – I want the presence of Elisha, our wee egg, to be felt in the most positive way possible.”