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 nail salon in Deer Park.
The ceremony, which blended Buddhist and Chinese traditions, took place Saturday morning at a funeral home in Flushing, Queens, where she had immigrated from China to build a new life. She died on June 28, but the funeral was delayed while she waited for a special visa so her husband could fly from China to the United States.
“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 state Rep. Ron Kim (D-Flushing), whose own family started in the nail salon business, in a eulogy.
Xu did nails for Long Islanders to earn money to support her father, her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, and her son, who has polio.
A prosecutor told the court Friday that at the time of the crash last month, the alleged drunk driver, Steven Schwally, 64, was more than twice the legal drink-drive limit. Schwally, who is jailed on bail, reportedly told police he had consumed 18 beers the night before the crash when he pulled into Hawaii Nail & Spa in his 2020 Chevrolet Traverse. The crash killed Xu, 41, 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 an NYPD cop. Nine other people were injured.
Rennhack’s funeral was held earlier this month in New Hyde Park. The others will be held soon.
On Saturday, at Xu’s funeral, Buddhist monks prayed. According to Chinese tradition, mourners formed a procession and placed Joss notes in a furnace next to the coffin, then burned offerings so that the spirit of the deceased would have enough resources in the afterlife. The ceremony and eulogies were interrupted several times as her father wept and sobbed in grief. Her husband, wearing a black mourning armband, wept. Her aunt collapsed and had to be carried outside. Her screams echoed loudly.
Inside the casket sat a baseball cap with the word “NY” embroidered on it. Nearby was a Yankees cap.
The funeral drew not only Xu’s relatives and friends, but also salon colleagues, local politicians and Island customers 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 the salon. The women couldn’t bring themselves to remove their mani-pedis 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 butterfly calligraphy on her big toe that she got 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 and my friend,” Kohl said.
Kilcarr, who has known the employees and owners for years, said: “They were like family. There are a million nail salons. This one was different.”
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 nail salon in Deer Park.
The ceremony, which blended Buddhist and Chinese traditions, took place Saturday morning at a funeral home in Flushing, Queens, where she had immigrated from China to build a new life. She died on June 28, but the funeral was delayed while she waited for a special visa so her husband could fly from China to the United States.
“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 state Rep. Ron Kim (D-Flushing), whose own family started in the nail salon business, in a eulogy.
Xu did nails for Long Islanders to earn money to support her father, her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, and her son, who has polio.
A prosecutor told the court Friday that at the time of the crash last month, the alleged drunk driver, Steven Schwally, 64, was more than twice the legal drink-drive limit. Schwally, who is jailed on bail, reportedly told police he had consumed 18 beers the night before the crash when he pulled into Hawaii Nail & Spa in his 2020 Chevrolet Traverse. The crash killed Xu, 41, 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 an NYPD cop. Nine other people were injured.
Rennhack’s funeral was held earlier this month in New Hyde Park. The others will be held soon.
On Saturday, at Xu’s funeral, Buddhist monks prayed. According to Chinese tradition, mourners formed a procession and placed Joss notes in a furnace next to the coffin, then burned offerings so that the spirit of the deceased would have enough resources in the afterlife. The ceremony and eulogies were interrupted several times as her father wept and sobbed in grief. Her husband, wearing a black mourning armband, wept. Her aunt collapsed and had to be carried outside. Her screams echoed loudly.
Inside the casket sat a baseball cap with the word “NY” embroidered on it. Nearby was a Yankees cap.
The funeral drew not only Xu’s relatives and friends, but also salon colleagues, local politicians and Island customers 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 the salon. The women couldn’t bring themselves to remove their mani-pedis 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 butterfly calligraphy on her big toe that she got 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 and my friend,” Kohl said.
Kilcarr, who has known the employees and owners for years, said: “They were like family. There are a million nail salons. This one was different.”
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