Family of couple killed in road crash find hope in local community support
By Rebecca Black, Press Association
The family of a couple who tragically died in a road crash are finding some hope in the support from the local community in north Belfast.
Ralph Anthony Singco, Cathrene Kith Quinones Singco, and their unborn baby daughter – whose name has been confirmed as Kate Singco, died from their injuries following the two-car collision near Nutts Corner.
It is understood the health service workers had been living in the north Belfast community for the last four or five years, but Mr Singco’s family had been settled in the area for 20 years.
Crowds of people, including North Belfast MP John Finucane, turned out to St Vincent de Paul Church in Ligoniel for the vigil – which remembered the family in hymns and prayer.
It heard that a A GoFundMe page set up to pay for the family’s repatriation to their home country of the Philippines has raised enough to do so.
Father Vincent Cushnahan said a number of members of Singco family were in attendance, and thanked those involved for their generosity.
Mr Singco’s brother, Antonio Singco, thanked those who turned out for their kindness, and described the support his family has received as incredible.
“There really is no explanation to make us understand our loss, and there will be no words that will make it any easier,” he said.
“My family has been left with grief but also love, love that is not going to end with their passing. I know that ultimately grief is the price we pay for love, and how grateful and privileged we are to love them very deeply.
“It’s very easy in these moments to lose yourself to loneliness and isolation, but the support that we’ve seen here tonight and the last few nights has been astronomical, unbelievable and incredible.
“It’s the support and solidarity that this community has shown us that has given us hope that there is still goodness and humanity in an unjust world.
“Tonight is not about fixing what can’t be fixed, it’s about honouring and remembering my brother and his family.”
Father Cushnahan said the couple had been looking forward to shortly welcoming their first child.
“This dreadful tragedy has brought out the best in this community, it has brought you here tonight and brought out your prayers and condolences, and overwhelming financial generosity to allow the Singco family to take Ralph, Kith and baby Kate home, to their home soil, to lay them to rest in peace there,” he said.
He said Mr Singco had grown up in Northern Ireland, but decided to go to university to study nursing care in the Philippines where he met his wife-to-be.
“After they graduated, they came back here to Ireland to establish a home,” he said.
“For four years they tried to have a baby, to bring new life into the world, and some seven months ago they discovered they were going to have a baby, and that filled them with joy and excitement, they made plans, they prepared for the future with little baby Kate.
“Their child was due in two months’ time, they were going to bring little Kate into a world where they had hope, they were going to work hard, they were going to show that love to this little baby, to shower her with everything they had.
“Sadly it wasn’t to be that way. Tragically their lives were taken from our lives just this day last week, and now they rest in peace.”
A funeral service will take place at the same church on Wednesday.
