A native of Achill Island, Co. Mayo died in Illinois on December 1 when the car she was traveling in hit a bad patch of ice on the road and collided with a semi-trailer truck.

Sarah "Pat" Conway, 70, was traveling with her friend Kathleen O'Toole and two other friends, Mary Heidkamp and Joanne Steeveld, when the gold 2004 Toyota Camry they were in lost control on an icy patch of road and sent them head on into a semi trailer near an intersection in southern DeKalb on December 1.

Conway was pronounced dead at the scene. The three other people in the car were taken to Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb.

Heidkamp died shortly after arriving. The driver, Steenveld, of Skokie, and O'Tolle, living in Chicago, were flown to Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford where they are both listed in critical condition.

The driver of the semi trailer was not injured.

The four women were returning from a friend's funeral in DeKalb when the accident occurred. It took 15 firefighters to remove the four women from the car.

Conway, a native of Pollagh, Achill Island, was living in St. Gertrude's parish in the Edgewater area of Chicago. She was an active member of her local parish.

Pastor associate at St. Gertrude's, Peter Buttitta told the Irish Voice on Monday that Conway "was a wonderful woman who took communion to senior citizens in a nearby nursing home."

Conway, who was McNamara before she married her husband Austin, has five children, Anne Marie, Michael, Patrick, Thomas, John, and Seamus and several grandchildren living St. Gertrude's parish. Two of her children are police officers.

Conway went back to Ireland as regularly as she could.

"It was Pat we would turn during this time of tragedy. She was always the comforter so it's very hard," said Buttitta.

Conway, who attended rosary every day, was also the operator of a group of people that would prepare funeral lunches in the parish hall if there was a death in the local parish, helping grieving families.

"She would never go by you without giving you a hug and a kiss," said Carol Clennon, a friend and former parish secretary.

Conway is fondly remembered on St. Gertrude's website.

"Your mother was a special lady. Running into Pat at a store, a wake, a meeting was always a joy. Her loss is deeply felt by all our family," wrote John Price from Chicago.