Family, Friends Gather to Say Goodbye to Courtenay Nash

Heartbroken parents, relatives and friends gathered Monday to remember Courtenay Nash, 18, a McLean High School grad who was found dead in her Syracuse University residence hall two weeks ago.

Relatives came from Australia and New Zealand.  Friends from McLean and from as far away as India and Israel. In all more than 100 made the pilgrimage to the McLean Community Center to say goodbye in a service led by her father, Andrew.

"It's been the most difficult two weeks of my life," Andrew Nash began, with his wife Sonya and son Lachlan seated nearby. "We're starting this long journey we're going on without Courtenay," he told the brimming with friends.

Throughout the service, pictures of Courtenay and her family flickered across two screens: a young mother and father holding their first born. Courtenay at Christmas. At birthday parties. At school performances. Hugging pets. With grandparents.

Her father and two neighbors reminisced about a girl who loved chocolate and sprinkles, listening, books and rescue dogs, and "adored her brother," who is four years younger.

This college freshman "with red hair and porcelain skin" was born Courtenay Amanda in Australia. She and her family first immigrated to Atlanta, then settled in McLean 14 years ago. She became a U.S. citizen a few years ago.

"Courtenay was born with a book in her hand," her father recalled.

Her love of books seemed innate. One of her three majors at Syracuse University was European literature.

For her midterm in her Russian literature course, Nash and her classmates had to write about a quote they found meaningful, Professor Patricia Burak told the Daily Orange, the student newspaper at Syracuse. Nash chose a quote from the novel Doctor Zhivago: "Man in other people is the man’s soul." Burak explained the quote means the immortality of a person's soul lives in others.

"She will live as part of our souls," her father said.

The chair of the Syracuse University board of trustees Richard Thompson, who lives in McLean also attended the service also with Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Dean of Students Thomas V. Wolfe and Colleen Bench, director of the university's Parents Office. Andrew Nash thanked the university for its support.

Nash, a freshman, was found dead in her Dellplain Hall room around 4:30 p.m. March 23, Syracuse Police Department said. The Syracuse Medical Examiner has said it could take up to a month to establish a cause of death.

Syracuse Police Sgt. Tom Connellan said police do not believe the incident is criminal in nature, WSYR-TV reported.

McLean neighbor Patty C. Finch remembered Courtenay as "one special beautiful treasure." Another neighbor, P.J. Maddox, described her as "intelligent, thoughtful," "the daughter we never had."

After more than an hour of memories, Andrew Nash said, "I've realized in the past two weeks how big a hole this is ... Losing children is terribly horrible ... I will live every single day for her."

The service ended to the words Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven." Pictures from Courtenay's photography work flashed across the screen. There were tears throughout the room.