Friends and loved ones will gather with heavy hearts on Tuesday to welcome Kaitlyn Doorhy home.
Doorhy, 20, who died Friday after a tragic accident while away at college, will be brought home on the Port Jefferson ferry, scheduled to depart at 11:30 a.m. Loved ones and friends will gather in front of Mattituck High School at 1:15 to watch as her body is brought home, along with a police escort, according to Southold Town Councilwoman Jill Doherty, a family friend. Doorhy’s car, a white Dodge Charger, will be driven behind the hearse as it heads to DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Homes in Mattituck, where the funeral will be held.
Her death has sparked an outpouring of love from a heartbroken community.
Friends and family will aldo gather Wednesday night at Mattituck HIgh School, around a memorial that has been set up around the flagpole, for a candlelight vigil that will celebrate her life.
Those attending Wednesday night’s vigil are asked to arrive between 7:45 and 8 p.m.; the candles will be lit around 8:30, when it is dark outside.
“We also have a box that everyone can write memories in,” said Molly Waitz, who helped to organize the vigil and also, set uo the Rest in Peace Kait Doorhy Facebook page. “A story, memory whatever they would like. We will put everything in the box and lock it. We will give the box to her family and bury her with the keys so only she can open it,” she said.
Doorhy’s parents have given permission to have the box of memories at the wake, as well, Waitz said.
“You have touched the world. Your smile alone describes your whole life,” Waitz said, of her friend. “It could light up a room full of darkness. Your smile brightened everyone’s life.”
Doorhy’s close friend Brittany Tumulty is heartbroken. “She was perfect and not even just her looks on the outside but her inner beauty was something I always admired. We became best friends in high school when we both dyed our hair platinum blonde and went to the gym and tanning every day after school. We have been inseparable ever since then; we just connected so perfectly, her parents and sister are literally a second family to me. I always thought of Carly being a little sister of my own.”
She added, “I can’t recall a bad time ever when we were together; it’s nothing but fun memories. She introduced me to so many of my friends that I have now, she was always friends with the older crowd and you would never know she was about two to four years younger than some of them, because she was just so mature. She literally had the most optimistic outlook on life and even when there was a small bump in the road it was like it didn’t even phase her, she quickly moved on and would learn from it. My best friend was truly a queen and inspiration to everyone who was lucky enough to know her. We will never forget any of our memories with her.”
Tumulty said she and her friends went to her favorite restaurant, Legends in New Suffolk Saturday night, and ordered her favorite calamari. They poured a glass of Dom Perignon and left it untouched, surrounded by candles, to symbolize the memory of a young woman who loved “the best of everything,” she said.
Tumulty said she and Doorhy used to talk about how, after grad school, she would buy a Bentley Continental GT coupe. “That was her dream car. And then a Mercedes G-Wagon, for when she had kids.”
She added, “When she got her new Dodge Charger a year ago we couldn’t wait to take cool pictures with the sunset in the background since we both now had new muscle cars and we thought we were so cool. When I passed a car like hers yesterday for a second I almost turned around to go talk to her. It’s still an unreal, painful feeling and always will be. Kait was so determined and that always inspired me to do well in school so that we could go on shopping sprees at the Americana Manhasset when we made it big. She had huge dreams and goals and I know for a fact she was going to achieve every one of them. If I could tell her one last thing besides ‘I love you’, it would be to not do anything too fun without me. And let’s get matching Lorraine Schwartz diamond angel wings when we meet again.”
