Timothy Cardinal Dolan offered comfort yesterday to a Staten Island boy whose grandmother was killed saving him from an SUV barreling toward him.
“What beautiful memories you’ll have of your grandmother,” Dolan told 8-year-old Brian Almazo after the funeral for Clara Almazo, who was killed Thursday as she pushed the boy to safety before being struck.
Dolan, who attended and spoke in Spanish at the service on Staten Island for the 57-year-old Mexican-born grandmother, said she would be remembered as a “hero in death.”
Almazo, her daughter, Berta, and Brian, had just attended a Holy Thursday church service and were just feet away from Almazo’s house when Brian McGurk, 40, came barreling toward them in an SUV.
Almazo pushed Brian out of the way seconds before the SUV slammed into her, throwing her 150 feet and instantly killing her.
Brian, who was on crutches yesterday after breaking his foot in the fall, said: “She was my favorite grandmother.”
McGurk, an expectant father, was charged with fleeing the scene and is free on $50,000 bail.