While Michelle Lynne Kern was known as quiet and shy, her mother Lucille Moran said she had a loving heart and built friendships that lasted a lifetime. Snapshots in Moran’s photo albums show her daughter with the same smiling faces—her closest friends—dating back to kindergarten right up through their high school years.

"She liked to be with her friends," said Moran. "For years, the five of them have all been together."

There were many other friends, too. Acquaintances Michelle met and developed friendships with; people her mother didn’t even know. "When I was given her bag, I looked at her phonebook and there were pages of people she was friends with," said her mother.

Michelle, who would have been a senior at Copiague High School this September, died in a car accident July 2, 2002. She was 16 years old.

Many of those whose lives Michelle Kern had touched in her brief 16 years attended her funeral. "People came from everywhere" said her mother. "Her first grade teacher was there, her principal, her guidance counselor, people from the school, from her job, friends of friends, grandparents of children, and parents of children," said Moran. "I wish she could have seen the amount of people that were there for her."

Michelle’s was pursuing a career as a hair dresser. She had the interest for two years, said her mother, and after finally meeting the age requirement in her junior year of high school, she began taking beauty courses at Wilson Tech School. She quit her after-school job of two years at IGA Supermarket in May to accept a position at the D Charles Hair Design beauty salon in Babylon last month. Though she started out shampooing customers’ hair, Kern was eager to get hands-on experience her employers would teach her.

"She was so excited because they were going to eventually let her cut and dye hair at the salon.  They taught her at school and she used to dye my hair all the time, but she was excited to be able to get a chance to really try it," said Moran.

A memorial fundraiser for Moran to help cover the expenses of her daughter’s funeral has been established by her former workers at IGA. And, though friends, family, and old coworkers of Michelle’s have remained a pillar of support for Moran, she felt that nothing could have prepared her for her daughter’s death.

"We just all feel that what happened was so totally unfair, and I don’t know what else to say. We were totally unprepared, but you’re never prepared when it’s an accident," she said. "She was very loving and caring, and she didn’t deserve to die.   There are people out there that complain about their kids and that they give them a hard time, but I didn’t have that.  She didn’t deserve it.  Everybody says God takes the good ones, but I just miss her so much."

In addition to her mother, Michelle is survived by her step-father, James Moran; her sister Christine Kern, 23, of Copiague; and her brother Robert Kern, 20, also of Copiague. She is also survived by her step-brother, James Moran, Jr., 33 , of North Shirley, and by her step-sister, Christine Carlson, 30, of Bellport. Surviving Michelle also is her father, James Kern and his wife Phyllis, of East Meadow, and their children, Robert Kerrigon, 40, of Copiague, and Erica Dworsak, 36, of Baldwin. Surviving grandparents include Katherine Mellini, of Flushing, Queens and Dorothy Kern of Sayville.

Michelle reposed at D’Andrea Brothers Funeral Home.  Religious services were held July 6 at Our Lady of Assumption Roman Catholic Church, and interment followed that day at St. Charles cemetery.