BELOVED Newtowncunningham woman Olivia Robb was fondly remembered for living a full and meaningful life, at her requiem Mass yesterday.

Olivia passed away peacefully in Letterkenny University Hospital on Thursday after a brave battle with Motor Neurone Disease.

Her death came just days ahead of her 50th birthday.

The Sligo native was well-known throughout Letterkenny and further afield having worked in Penneys, in the Letterkenny Shopping Centre, for almost 30 years. Throughout her illness, the staff went above and beyond to support their beloved colleague, organising numerous fundraisers to assist in providing her care.

Yesterday, hundreds gathered at All Saints Church in Newtowncunningham to bid the mother-of-one a heartfelt farewell.

Born into the Conlon family almost five decades ago, Olivia spent her childhood and teenage years in Sligo.

Coming to the county to avail of third level education, she studied in the Regional, now known as the ATU.

While living in Sligo, Olivia worked in Penneys, a role that eventually led to her transfer to the Letterkenny store.

While working here, she met her husband of 22 years, Brendan, during a Christmas night out at the Orchard Inn.

Publicly thanking Brendan at Mass yesterday, Chief Celebrant, Fr Philip Kemmy expressed his gratitude for his dedication as a husband to Olivia.

He said Brendan’s dedication to her, particularly since her diagnosis, has been truly heroic.

“Had you not hit it off that night, then both you and Olivia would have been deprived of the great joy and light of your life together, young Lisa,” he said.

“Lisa, who was and is so loved by Olivia, Lisa, who, at such a young early age, had to carry a lot on her young shoulders.

“I think, Lisa, you have your mother’s blood running through your veins and your mother was made of strong stuff and you are too.”

Fr Kemmy said Olivia carried her illness with remarkable grace.

“When I would visit her, this past year, she would be typing out her sentences using her eyes on a screen and I often thought how tiring on her eyes that must have been,” he said.

“And yet, when you looked at her eyes, they were always smiling.”

Olivia was remembered for loving skin care, lip gloss, holidays away, listening to music, watching the rugby, competing in phone-ins on the radio and her wee Buttons, the family dog.

But most of all, she was remembered for loving her family.

At the end of his homily, Fr Kemmy described Olivia as the “cream of the crop” among Sligo women.

After Mass, burial took place in the adjoining cemetery.

Olivia is predeceased by her mother Teresa and sister-in-law Stephanie.

Deeply missed by her loving husband Brendan and daughter Lisa, her father Bertie Conlon, brothers Tony, Brian and Adrian, sister Ann-Marie Sheridan, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, her devoted Shih Tzu Buttons and a wide circle of family, friends and neighbours.