Hundreds recall ‘a sweet couple’
Community turns out to honor the newlyweds who perished in crash
Just four months ago, two families — the Mcgowans and the Vertuccis — gathered to celebrate the marriage of Erin Vertucci and Shane Mcgowan. On Sunday, they gathered again, this time to remember the couple killed in last Saturday’s devastating limousine crash in Schoharie.
At least 300 mourners lined Amsterdam’s main street to honor the lives of the newlyweds, recalled by many as a sweet couple lost too soon: Erin was 34 years old and Shane was 30.
The line for the gathering for family, friends and the community snaked down East Main Street, past a half-mast flag, and around another block.
Inside the church, dozens of photos plastered on boards lined the aisles, showing Shane playing ball and on the beach as a kid, and Erin drinking mimosas with a friend and as a radiant bride. A
picture of the couple embracing on their wedding day covered the altar along with flowers in the shapes of a cross, a heart and a baseball. The song “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd played in the sanctuary.
Friends and family members clutched one another, some in tears, or filled the pews in silence. Some mourners said they worked with the couple or knew their parents. Others had children who grew up with them.
Nancy and Mike Whitty said their son is just a year younger than Shane Mcgowan and played ball with him. The Whittys were the couple’s landlord on Ford Street in Amsterdam for the past three years.
“They were a sweet couple. They were wonderful people,” Nancy Whitty said.
In the close-knit community of Amsterdam where she grew up and still lives, Whitty said everyone in the city of about 20,000 has been affected by last week’s tragedy. It seems everyone knows someone impacted by the crash.
“It’s very sad. It’s horrific. I don’t even have words to express,” Whitty said.
Erin’s uncle Anthony Vertucci, who lives in Saratoga Springs, said the couple had been together for at least three years before getting married in June.
“You’re always hoping you find the love of your life, it’s what you hope and wish and dream for, and they found each other. They were just so beautiful and vibrant and kind. They made such a dynamic duo,” Vertucci said. “They were finally able to get married and just honestly starting to live their life. They
had big plans. They were saving for a house and hoping to do everything that everybody hopes to do.”
A couple related to the Mcgowans, who asked that their names not be used, drove three hours from Worcester, Mass., to attend the service on Sunday. The last time they saw Erin and Shane was at Christmas. After a family dinner, they said, Erin and Shane sat down to play games with all the young cousins.
“They were the best kind of young people,” the family members from Worcester said. “That’s what they were into, family and being together, that was their idea of a good time.”
When Shane and Erin were together there was “just a lot of laughter,” they said. “They were newlyweds, they were shining in their eyes. They were just young people with their future ahead of them, their plans all laid.”
Erin, one of three daughters, worked in record-keeping at St. Mary’s Hospital in Amsterdam. Shane, one of three sons, worked for hearing aid company Miracle
Ear.
Last Saturday, they stepped into a limousine to celebrate their friend Amy Steenburg’s 30th birthday.
“They just decided to rent a limousine and have fun and not worry about everything,” Vertucci said.
Erin Mcgowan sent a text to a friend who was the maid of honor at her wedding saying that the limousine was in terrible condition and “the motor is making everyone deaf,” the New York Times reported.
Erin, Shane, 15 of their friends and three others would be killed when the limousine crashed into the parking lot of Apple Barrel Country Store in Schoharie later that day.
“My whole entire family is in complete and utter shock. It’s hard and so tragic,” said Vertucci. “We’re just talking layers of tragedy. There are so many families affected by this.”
A burial Mass will be held for Erin and Shane Mcgowan at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, 156 E. Main St., Amsterdam at 11:15 a.m. Monday. The burial will follow in St. Casimir’s Cemetery.