'Go well my son, I’ll always love you'
The funeral of Avu Idris, led by a guard of honour of Villa FC and De La Salle College students, makes its way to Kilbarry Cemetery. Photo: Joe Evans
The three beautiful framed photos showing the infectious smile of 17-year-old Avu Idris, who died tragically last week, stood at the front of his grief-stricken family at his funeral service on Thursday morning painting a glowing picture of his love of life and football.
Inside the Maranatha Christian Community Church in Poleberry, mourners heard how Avu had “plans to go South Africa in December”, how he was a “leader”, how he was a “star boy and shining example”, how he owes his brother a “rematch in FIFA”, and how he will be “loved and missed forever”.
As his funeral cortege, flanked by a guard of honour from Villa Football Club and De La Salle Community College, made its final journey to Kilbarry Cemetery, tears were wiped from the faces of many as the Maranatha Youth Group sang behind the hearse.
In a touching tribute to her son, his mother Priscilla said that she “thanked God for giving me Avu and for caring for him for 17 years.”
Priscilla said: “In life I have learned that there is some bad and good days, this was the worst bad and saddest day in my life. Avu, a million words won’t bring you back my son, and I know because I’ve tried. Avu, tears won’t bring you back because I’ve cried. I’ve cried and cried.
“Avu, my eyes refuse to watch you leaving me because I think it was too soon. I still wanted to see you growing and become a great football player. Avu loved football and he lived football. He also wanted to be tall and gain weight. His friend Benji said that it was cause he drank orange juice, so I had to buy him it to gain weight.
“He always wanted to see his team winning and he would be screaming at his teammates because he wanted them to win. Avu, you know we had plans and how you wanted to travel to South Africa with his friends. That was going to happen this December.”
His mother added how she was going to miss “his smile, his jokes, and our arguments”.
“We always argued about doing his laundry and his habit of missing the bus. I’ll think of all the good times we had with Avu. Go well my son, I’ll always love you, I’ll always love you.”
His sister Noora said that her brother has “taught her a lesson”.
“I’ll miss having you here, but as much as I know about life, you have taught me a lesson here today by keeping walking steady, and although walking down this path won’t be easy, but memories that I have with you will keep me company.
“The memories in the kitchen when I’d cook and you’d steal my own food. It may be time to say goodbye, but your memories will fit like a keyhole in a lock. Your words will encourage me, lift me up in life, and you’ll forever be missed by everybody. I want you to know as your sister I will forever love you.”
His brother Nur said: "I wish I had spent more time with you this year, if I had known you were going, and although it’s too late to say it, you owe me a rematch in FIFA. I wish you were alive to carry on your football career.
“I wish you made it further. Just know that I really love you. Everyone loves you and everyone is going to miss you.”
Paying tribute to the youngster, who was a member of the local church, his leader Bernadette said that he was always to the “forefront of the group”.
“He was always the one who made out the actions for the songs when we were learning them. He would help us learn the actions to them. He was so good at events, drama, songs, and quiz. He was a leader. The infectious smile of his always won the heart.”
She spoke on how the Sunday before the tragedy of last Thursday that Avu was trying to sign his young brother Adam up to the local church.
“He came up to me and asked me 'can I sign up my little brother?' and I said to him no because he wasn’t 18 yet. You would think that he would be offended, but he wasn’t. Instead he went and got his mother to sign it. He walked away from that with a big smile. He was star boy and a shining example.”
His Villa coach, Jonathan McEvoy said that “every once in a while, you get a couple of individuals who really shine, and within that cohort you get someone who shines so bright it is just a simple pleasure to have been blessed to have got to know them.
“In the years I have been coaching, Avu was that brightest of blessings and I can hand on heart say that any coach who had any bit of time with him would completely agree.
“Avu excelled at making any team he was part of even better. I know this only too well because I witnessed him grow; from that tiny U12s team that had boundless potential and hearts of lions, right up to training regularly with our men’s 1B team that found joy in passing along their experience to him.
“All of us at Villa are truly thankful, and have had the utmost of pleasures, to have had those multiple nights a week, that turned into months, and stretched into some incredible years, with him.”
De La Salle College Principal Mick Walsh said that although Avu’s brother Mury was hoping that he would play “chess in first year, but that didn’t work out as football was his path”.
“He loved sport, he loved soccer, and he loved everything that meant being part of a team. Fortunately we entered PE into our school subjects and Avu was one of the first people in this school to study PE for his leaving cert.
“Always a good student, I shouldn’t be saying this, but we’d have a 70-a-side soccer match up by the tennis court. Avu would be the first man to enter it, and the last man to leave even if it meant being late for the next class.
“Avu laughed often and much. He won the respect of intelligent people and the affection of many. He was a young man that always found the best in others, and leaves the world a better place for those who have known him.”
Deputy Mayor of Waterford City and County Cllr. Adam Wyse, Metropolitan Mayor Cllr. Joe Kelly, and Cllrs. John Hearne and Donal Barry were present at the funeral, as was local St. Saviour's Parish Priest Fr. Robbie Grant, alongside Pastor Gerard Dunphy and Rev Barry White.
Principal of De La Salle College Mick Walsh, and deputy principals Eileen Doolan, Declan O’Brien, and Tom Bourke, were joined by the rest of the teaching staff.
A Villa jersey draped Avu’s coffin as he was burial near the grave of his close friend Gilbert Collins, who also lost his life in the tragic accident that occurred last week. A community weeped and hugged as they said their final goodbyes to a young lad who lived as he loved with that infectious smile.
