Family of Derry nun killed in Ecuadorian earthquake thank people for support shown over the past year

The sister of a Derry nun who was killed in an earthquake last year has spoken of the overwhelming support her family has received from the local community over the past 12 months.

Sister Clare Crockett was one of six people who died when a four-storey building collapsed due to an earthquake which struck Playa de Prieta in Ecuador on April 17 last year.

Sister Clare, a former pupil of Nazareth House Primary School and St Cecilia's College, died when the quake demolished the school in which she taught.

The 33-year-old had been missionary worker with the Home of the Mother Order at Playa Prieta.

She had been trying to help children to safety when the earthquake hit.

A special Mass will be held in the city tonight at the Long Tower to mark the first anniversary of her death, which will see nuns from the order Sister Clare served in attendance.

The Derry News spoke to Clare’s younger sister, Shauna Gill on Friday, where she shared her memories of the girl she lovingly described as ‘the boss’, how the community in Derry – and beyond – have provided invaluable support to her family in the year and the legacy that her sister has left in passing.

One part of that legacy is that Sister’s Clare order will now be opening its first house in Ireland, in Roscommon, next month.

“They’ve always wanted to open a house here in Ireland,” Shauna said, “and everyone was so affected after Clare’s death that the nuns spoke to the Bishop down there and he agreed to it.”

“There’s four nuns coming over, three from Ireland and one from America, and it’s a good thing, but it would have been nice if the house could have been opened when Clare was still with us and she could have home, but it wasn’t to be.”

Shauna also spoke of Clare’s life prior to her taking up religious orders, describing her as the ‘boss’ of her and their other sister Megan, given that Clare was the oldest.

“There was three of us and our Clare was the boss, always full of drama,” she joked.

“She used to work in the Leprechaun in the Strand Road, and enjoyed her wee nights out.”

Shauna added that the family were ‘shocked’ when Clare announced her decision to join the order, which she did after travelling to Spain, aged just 17.

“She was actually in a group called COR, and there was bus run going to Spain and she was told that a few people had dropped out so there was room on the trip for her,” she said.

“So Clare thought, happy days, but then when she got on the bus it was full of old people and only then she realised that this was actually a pilgrimage,” Shauna continued.

“That was around 2000 when she was about 17.”

Shauna added: “When Clare arrived home from Spain, she said ‘I’m going away,’ and we asked her, “Going where?’, and that’s when she told us that she was leaving to become a nun.

“It was just the biggest shock to us and everyone that knew her, because she wanted to be an actor, she had actually already done a few things for TV on Channel 4, she was brilliant and had been in the Bloody Sunday film, and she had more work lined up.”

“She received communion on Good Friday during that time in Spain, and that’s when she believed she received her calling.

“It’s funny because we didn’t even know the details of how that happened until about five years ago, when Clare came back to Derry as part of a pilgrimage with young people to Termonbacca, where she stood up and told her story to a packed room.”

Shauna added that while Clare ‘truly believed’ that this was the path for her, it was difficult for her family to come to terms with in some ways, particularly given that fact that Clare was not allowed to come home regularly.

“If she had been able to be a nun here, it wouldn’t have been too bad, you could have lived with that, but she was away, and we didn’t really get to see Clare after she joined because she wasn’t allowed home, and I never agreed with that.

“That was tough for us, and I did question that, because I worked for the nuns here and they didn’t have to live like that.

“And when she did come home, she did as part of a larger group, and we never got to see Clare on her own.”

Shauna also spoke of receiving the devastating news last year that firstly, her sister was missing in Ecuador, and then learning that Clare had been killed in the earthquake.

“The not knowing was the worst part,” she said.

“The Thursday night before the earthquake there had been floods, and I just had this feeling, you know, a gut feeling, because my sister Megan rang me and said that my mother was worried about Clare.

“We had been ringing the convent in Spain on the Thursday because we couldn’t get a hold of Clare, but they told us that everything was okay, the area Clare was at in Ecuador had been hit with massive floods, but it had been cleaned up.

“Then the earthquake happened on Sunday.”

She added: “We only found that the earthquake had struck through a Facebook page, and the first thing we though was ‘Should we go out?’ but the whole place was in turmoil and no one knew what was going on.

“We rang the convent in Spain again, and they told us that Clare was missing, so after that I rang every hour on the hour.”

“It was hard because my mother was away in Buncrana and my other sister was away to Portugal and I just didn’t know what to do, how to tell my mother.

“My cousin, Emmet Doyle helped me, he contacted Pat Ramsey who in turn then got onto the Irish Consulate, but there’s nothing really you can do when the people over there don’t know what’s going on.”

“Martin McGuinness was just so good to us too, his help was unbelievable, both him and Patricia Logue,” she said.

“He (Martin McGuinness) was with us all day and night, and was constantly on the phone to Charlie Flanagan (Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade) and the Taoiseach.”

At midnight, the family received confirmation that Clare had died in the earthquake.

“Martin stayed with us through the whole thing and at 12 o’clock, we got the call to say that Clare’s body had been found.” Shauna added: “In some ways you have to be thankful that Clare was found so soon, because when I see that family searching down the Foyle, I’m glad that Clare was found because it could have been weeks.”

The family then began the difficult – and costly process – of attempting to bring Clare’s body home.

“We are a working-class family, we haven’t got thousands of pounds lying in the bank,” Shauna added.

However, the help the Crockett family received at this time is something Shauna said that she will never forget.

“The Irish Consulate were great with us, it was a lady called Donna Gill, she was amazing, and she had asked us on the Monday if Clare had insurance, and she didn’t.

“Donna then told us that bringing her back could be a long process, and it could cost a lot of money.”

Shauna added: “Donna told me that she had a number of a man that could help, a man called Colin Bell.”

The Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust was set up almost four years go by the Bell family after a personal tragedy.

Colin Bell's 26-year-old son, Kevin, was killed in a suspected hit-and-run in New York in June 2013.

Since then, the charity had helped hundreds of families whose loved ones have died away from home by giving financial assistance to bereaved families in the repatriation process.

“I rang the number, Colin picked up and asked me what happened, and I told him, and he just said to me: “Was that the wee nun from Derry?”

“He then asked me for my phone number, and he done everything.”

The Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust liaised with the Ecuadorian authorities and with the deceased's Order for the return of Clare’s body to Derry, which took two weeks.

Shauna added that the family’s group of friends also helped out with costs by setting up a Just Giving page and bucket collections.

“Or friends were great, we couldn’t have got through it without them and my mother’s house never emptied for two weeks, and it was a long two weeks,” Shauna said.

“It was very tough for my mother, because she was heartbroken from the minute Clare left, it was like she lost her twice.

“It was tough too because we never got to see Clare’s body, the coffin was closed, even the undertaker was under strict instructions not to open the coffin.

“So for us we never really got that closure of seeing Clare.”

However, Shauna added that the family were happy that Clare’s life had touched people’s lives.

A retired teacher, Carol Toner from Downpatrick travel along the Camino Way in August to raise £10,000 towards the rebuilding of the school in Playa de Prieta, which was destroyed in the earthquake.

Shauna and her family will join Carol on the last three days of the walk, while Sister Clare’s former school, Nazareth House, also raised £900 in her memory.

“It’s really nice to see people in the community remembering Clare, where she lived,” Shauna added.

“There’s a wee man who comes down from Toome every day, he gets the bus down, and visits Clare’s grave, and that’s a lovely thing.”

If you would like to donate top Ms Toner’s campaign to help rebuild the school, you can visit her Just Giving Page on www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/carol-toner.