LEXINGTON — Mourners gathered in Grace Chapel Saturday morning to remember Allison Warmuth, recalling the contagious smile and quirky sense of humor that was taken so suddenly from them in a crash with a duck boat two weeks ago.
“Ally, who, while having her own clearly definitive path that left everyone who met her wanting to know a little more, had a way about her that made her relatable to all of us,’’ said Lauren Hudson during the funeral service, standing before a quiet crowd in front of a casket with an enormous bouquet of white roses set on it.
In a game of “roommate roulette,’’ she and Warmuth along with three other women had been randomly selected to room together their junior year at Messiah College. The five of them formed a lasting bond.
And Warmuth was “the glue that kept us so closely together,’’ Hudson said.
Warmuth, 28, was struck and killed by a duck boat April 30 while riding her red moped scooter near her Beacon Hill home.
After attending Messiah College in Pennsylvania, she moved to the Boston area at age 22 and took a job at Lexington Insurance Co., traveling to various facilities for the firm and writing multimillon-dollar policies for hospitals, her father has said.
“I confided once in Ally that I was a terrible public speaker, that I was seized with attacks of anxiety whenever I did it, and I could barely finish a sentence in front of a group,’’ said Alexandra Calvi, a friend of Warmuth’s from work. “Secretly, this made me feel very ashamed.’’
Later, Warmuth told her their boss was starting a Toastmasters club at work, and that they were going to join together to help her overcome her paralyzing fear. Warmuth persisted in encouraging her friend, despite Calvi’s terror.
“She saw the good, the light, the potential, the promise in every person, in every piece of life,’’ said Calvi. “And everyone who spent time with her saw it, too.’’
Calvi didn’t stumble once during her speech.
Following the service, Nicki Jordan recalled how she met Warmuth in their freshman year of college. Jordan was struggling with the recent death of her grandfather and desperately wanted to return home.
“I met Ally and everything was better,’’ she said. “I stayed [at college] because of her.’’
She reiterated how Warmuth was a such an amazing and good person.
“I feel like I try to be that good and could never come close,’’ she said.
Martha and Ivan Warmuth told the Globe the day after their daughter’s death that she was an adventurer who enjoyed running, skiing, and golfing. She was preparing for a sprint triathlon, and she knitted in what remained of her spare time.
Sarah Vasser, one of the tightly knit college roommate group, read aloud a text message that Warmuth had spontaneously sent her the previous summer: “Um, how many pints of Ben & Jerry can I eat before I put on weight? Please say at least one a day.’’
Allison, she said, always made everyone laugh.
Nicole Fleming can be reached at nicole.fleming@globe.com.
