Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late PresidentJohn F. Kennedy, joined her relatives at a private wake and Mass on Sunday for 22-year-oldSaoirse Kennedy Hill, a family friend tells PEOPLE.
Robert F. Kennedy‘s granddaughter and the only child ofCourtney Kennedy HillandPaul Hill, Saoirse died last week aftera suspected overdoseat the family’s storied estate in Massachusetts.
The multigenerational clan — the many different branches of the family tree, including the Lawfords and Shrivers, even the Schwarzeneggers (minusArnold) — gathered Sunday evening at the home of matriarchEthel Kennedy, 91, according to the family friend.
“They were all there,” the friend says. “The entire family was there.”
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“It’s sort of like a reunion,” the friend says. “It’s such a huge family …. [that] they see each other at funerals and tragedies.”
The friend says Caroline, 61, a former ambassador to Japan, gave one of the readings at the Mass.
“She looked very good,” the friend says. Caroline’s daughterTatiana Schlossbergaccompanied her.
Courtney, Saoirse’s mom, at one point assisted the priest with communion. “She has a visible, bad tremor …. but then she sort of rallied and she gave communion to all of her siblings,” says the family friend.
She also offered an intention. Quoting Courtney, the friend recalled it as: “For all the love that Paul and I had for each other, and for all the love Paul and I had for Saoirse.”
Facebook;Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
Mourners at Saoirse Kennedy Hill’s funeral Mass on Monday, including mom Courtney Kennedy Hill (second from left).DAVID L RYAN/Shutterstock
The family is “just so used to public grieving, I think, that they do this in their own house but it’s almost as if they are expected to somehow be in the public eye and they have to be strong,” the friend tells PEOPLE.
In a statement last week soon after Saoirse’s death, the Kennedyssaid they were “shattered.”
“The world is a little less beautiful today,” Ethel said of her granddaughter.
In a statement to PEOPLE, Saoirse’s auntKerry Kennedysaid, “These last few dayshave been abundant with suffering and love.”
Saoirse’s cause and manner of death — whether it was accidental — is pendinga toxicology report. She was found unresponsive in Ethel’s home on Thursday afternoon after a late night on Wednesday that ended witha sunrise swim in the Atlantic Oceanon Thursday morning.
“Saoirse was the love of my life,” dad Paul said at her funeral on Monday, according to someone in attendance. “I loved her to death.”
source: people.com
