Lewis Mc Kee funeral: Mourners hear of a kind 'young man whose glass was always half full'

Lewis McKee died after a road traffic collision in Cullybackey on Friday, 21st October.

He was taken to hospital following a one-vehicle collision involving a blue Ford Fiesta in the Cardonaghy Road area shortly before 11.40pm on Friday.

He sadly died a short time later.

A PSNI spokesman said two other young people – a teenage boy and girl – who were also in the vehicle at the time, sustained injuries which are not believed to be life-threatening.

"A 17 year old boy, arrested on suspicion of a number of offences, has since been released on police bail to allow for further police enquiries,” he added.

“Our enquiries are continuing and the Collision Investigation Unit is appealing to anyone who was in the area at the time who witnessed the collision, or who saw a blue Ford Fiesta before the collision in the area to contact police on 101 quoting reference number 2165 of 21/10/22.”

Funeral details released for Lewis McKee as investigation into one vehicle collision continues - tributes ongoing

Meeting the questions on the minds of many of those who attended his 2pm funeral in Craigs Parish Church in Cullybackey, Rev Halligan said: “There are occasions in life and death which make us cry out ‘why?’ and the circumstances we are dealing with today is such an occasion. Over and above the grief we feel with Lewis’s death is the extra and anguished question, why did it happen in this way?”

He added that what many are “trying to come to terms with can shake our faith to its very foundations” leaving us to feel “abandoned by the God we have learned from childhood to call our Father”.

The cleric added that when mourners “heard the news last Saturday, we instinctively refused to believe it because Lewis was a young man, blessed with great health and fitness”.

He added that “one of the most difficult pastoral situations I have ever had to deal with” was telling our congregation last Sunday.

Rev Halligan said: "Lewis’s death was an awful tragedy and our faith in God should not make us think of it in any other way. As to where God was last weekend, he was surely with the paramedics surgeons and staff in Antrim Area who did their utmost to save Lewis.

"God was in the ICU helping the sister and nurses and consultants do their level best to give Lewis a fighting chance.

"Every ounce of medical knowledge and expertise was called upon, but there are still some issues which are beyond our present medical knowledge.

“As our hearts are broken today, so too God weeps with us. He doesn’t offer us cheap sympathy or meaningless platitudes; he simply offers us

his comfort.

"He doesn’t give us answers, he gives us love and support and that may be something which will only make sense in the days

which lie ahead."

The cleric said Lewis was a son, brother and a friend.

He added “we all have so many special memories of Lewis” as “a young man who lived life to its very fullest, packing in so much energy and activity into everything he turned his hand to”.

"The glass was always half full rather than half empty with Lewis and his good humour and positivity endeared him to all of us,” added Rev Halligan.

The cleric said that Lewis’ love of barbering – which he had been studying at the tech – was established during the lockdown when he cut the hair of "basically anyone who let

him he loved it so much”.

Addressing mourners Rev Halligan said: “Some day on the other side of this life we will have all the answers to the questions that are weighing heavily with us today. But this we do believe and this we know. Lewis is at peace now and his pain is no more. He is with God in a place where all things are made well and where all darkness is overcome.”