Community comes together to pay for Omagh man’s funeral

A COMMUNITY has rallied around to pay for the funeral of an Omagh man who had no family in the town.

Tadeusz ‘Ted’ Lange was originally from Poland but had lived in Omagh for ‘many years’, according to the priest who conducted his Requiem Mass today.

Ted, who is believed to have been in his 60s, lived alone at Holmview Avenue and died at his home on May 26.

Despite being a private man, Ted was well-known and liked in Omagh and was a popular customer in a number of local bars.

After his death, and when it became clear that Ted had no family in the local area, a collection was started to pay for his funeral.

People donated around £1,200 to an online fundraising page, while collection boxes were also placed in Bogan’s Bar and McAleer’s Bar in Omagh, two of the pubs that Ted frequented.

Other Omagh pubs who helped out with the collection were Daly’s and Charlie’s.

Speaking at Ted’s funeral today at Christ the King church in Omagh, Father Ignacy Saniuta, the Polish chaplain for the Derry Diocese, praised those who had organised and donated to the collection.

“Your kindness and care show that one doesn’t need a large family to be loved and remembered. May God bless you all,” said Fr Saniuta.

“Though he lived alone he does not leave this world alone. He is being remembered today by his friends and neighbours.

“Tadeusz’s death reminds us how fragile life is, but it also reminds us that every life is valuable, even if it is lived quietly, even if it ends without much notice.

“Ted had no close family here but he had friends, neighbours and people of goodwill who would not let him go without honour.

“This is a powerful testimony. A loving heart always finds the way to others.”

Fr Saniuta acknowledged little was known about Ted’s past.

“We don’t know everything about his story and his life. Perhaps he carried pain. Perhaps he struggled quietly, but today that no longer matters because God, who sees everything, looks not on the past but at the present, in the heart.”

Following today’s funeral service, Ted was buried in Greenhill Cemetery.

A reception was held afterwards in his honour at Bogan’s Bar.