Nail salon victim Yan Xu mourned in funeral that mixed Buddhist and Chinese traditions

Mourners lit incense, bowed three times and placed flowers in the open casket of Long Island manicurist Yan Xu, one of four victims killed last month by an allegedly drunk driver who plowed into a Deer Park nail salon.

The ceremony, which was held in accordance with Buddhist and Chinese traditions, took place Saturday morning at the Chun Fook Funeral Home on Northern Boulevard in Flushing, Queens, the borough where Xu lived after emigrating from China to America. Xu, 41, died on June 28, but the funeral was delayed while waiting for an expedited visa for her husband, Ye Zhu, to leave China.

“She was a wife. She was a daughter. She was one of us in this community. Like many others in our community, we all came here as immigrants. We work hard,” said Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing), whose own family got their start in America in the nail salon business, in a eulogy.

Xu has been doing nails for Long Islanders to earn money to help support her father, Peijian Xu, who lives in Queens; her mother, Shaomei Fu, who has Alzheimer’s disease; and her son, Jie Ren, who has polio. Her mother and son live in China.

In Suffolk County Court on Friday, a prosecutor said the alleged drunk driver, Steven Schwally, 64, was more than twice the legal alcohol limit at the time of the crash. Schwally, who was jailed on bail, reportedly told police he had consumed 18 beers the night before the crash, during which he drove his 2020 Chevrolet Traverse into Hawaii Nail & Spa around 4:30 p.m.

He pleaded not guilty to a charge of drunken driving.

The crash killed Xu as well as salon co-owner Jiancai “Ken” Chen, 37, of Bayside; Meizi Zhang, 50, of Flushing; and Emilia Rennhack, 30, of Deer Park, a salon client who also worked as a New York City police officer. Nine other people were injured.

Rennhack’s funeral was held earlier this month in New Hyde Park. The others will be held soon.

Vicky Chen, Jiancai Chen’s sister, told Newsday at Xu’s funeral that Wen Jun Cheng, Chen’s widow and co-owner of the salon who was seriously injured in the accident, has been discharged from the hospital and returned home with the couple’s children, but she is still unable to walk. The youngest child has still not been notified of the death, Vicky said. Cheng has undergone four surgeries, according to Vicky, who has been calling her own son on FaceTime since the funeral.

Buddhist monks chanted and prayed. According to Chinese tradition, mourners formed a procession and placed joss paper and prayer money in an oven next to the coffin — offerings burned so that the spirit of the deceased would have sufficient means in the afterlife.

Xu’s father wept and wept in grief. Her husband, wearing a black mourning armband, cried: “Woman, I love you,” he said in a eulogy delivered in Mandarin. Her aunt collapsed and had to be carried away.

Inside the coffin, a baseball cap embroidered with the word “NY” was placed on Xu’s head. Nearby was a Yankees cap.

The ceremony drew not only Xu’s family and friends, but also salon colleagues, local politicians and clients from as far away as Long Island like Tracy Kilcarr, 53, and Linda Kohl, 63, both of Deer Park.

In the weeks leading up to the accident, Kilcarr and Kohl had their nails done at a nail salon. The women couldn’t bring themselves to remove their manicures and pedicures or get their nails done elsewhere, they said.

“I can’t take them off. I just can’t get rid of them,” Kilcarr said, pointing to the calligraphed butterflies on each of her big toes done during a pedicure at the salon.

The two women, clients of the salon since it opened more than ten years ago, wept as the monks prayed.

“She was my daughter,” Kohl said, “and she was my friend.”

Kilcarr witnessed the accident while waiting at a red light. She recalls how she and others, “trying to comfort people who had nails that we all knew,” shouted into the building: “Help is coming! Please stay with us!”

“It was like a family,” Kilcarr said. “There are a million nail salons out there. This one was different.”

Xu was to be cremated.

CORRECTION: A photo caption in an earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the man holding the portrait of Yan Xu.