Hundreds of mourners flooded a Harlem church Saturday to say their final goodbyes to Lovay Williams, the beloved mother brutally beaten to death in front of her 7-year-old daughter earlier this month.
A white carriage pulled by two white horses, and displaying a photo of Williams, transported her white with gold trim casket to Canaan Baptist Church on West 116th Street in Harlem for her funeral.
Williams’ heartbroken brother, Nuquan Williams Jr., wore a necklace containing his sister’s picture around his neck to the somber service.
“Right now, I’m very devastated,” he told The Post.
“On behalf of my sister, I’m kind of angry … that her life was taken from her so, so young, 27 years old, devoted mother.”
His niece — who was found in the apartment when police arrived and discovered Williams had been savagely beaten — wore a green dress to the ceremony, one of her mom’s favorite colors.
“She’s in loving spirits,” Williams Jr., said of his niece. “She’s strong for her mom, and she has a bunch of support. You know, me, all my family, work for the state, city … so she’s gonna be well taken care of.”
At one point during the funeral mass, the little girl was escorted up to the open casket to see her mother, who was wearing a green dress with a light, white jacket, a gold necklace and a gold tiara — with her hands crossed in front of her.
Inside the church, congregants sang and wept for the mom whose boyfriend, Tiliek Thompson, allegedly killed her on Sept. 6 in Washington Heights.
Thompson sits in a jail cell on Rikers Island and faces a murder charge.
The victim’s grandfather, Jose Chango Alvarez, said he hurts having lost his granddaughter.
“But at the same time, I feel blessed that she’s somewhere peaceful in God’s hand, and she not feeling no pain,” Alvarez, 65 said, as a choir sang during the mass.
“Even though she was taken too early from us, life is gonna move on, but we’re gonna move on in her name, Lovay.”
And he assured that his great-granddaughter would get through it.
“She’s gonna be okay, because we gonna keep her strong,” Alvarez said.
Some mourners donned a green T-shirt with a photo of Williams on it, reading “Forever 27.”
Giana Brown called her an “amazing person” and one of her best friends in middle school.
“She always put people before her, like, always putting a smile on somebody’s face,” the friend recalled. “If you know how her spirit is definitely, like, she has a pure spirit as a person.”
She was also clad in green. “Of course, I had to wear green as one of her favorites,” she said.
At the conclusion of mass, four doves were released outside the church to cheers from the crowd. People cheered “we love you” and someone shouted “Lovay is gone” as her body was lifted into the carriage and whisked away.
Additional reporting by Andrew Balaban.
Read the full article here