Family and friends remembered Jena Pothier as a funny and vivacious young woman at a memorial held at Our Lady Star of the Sea church in Oak Bluffs Wednesday morning.

Ms. Pothier was a graduate of Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School and had recently completed her freshman year at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire when she was killed in a car crash last Thursday night in West Tisbury. She was 18.

Cousin Jay Pothier remembered the little girl on his shoulders at the Oak Bluffs summer fireworks, and described the young woman she became.

“She had a personality so unique that it begged the phrase, well that’s Jena,” he said, “Jena with one ena . . she was my favorite little cousin.”

The memorial had the intimate feel of a gathering of friends and family, though 300 to 400 people attended the funeral mass.

When Father Michael Nagle asked those present to take their seats shortly after 11 a.m., many were left standing in the wings and the back of the church. A few more still stood out in the sunshine on Massasoit avenue, where cars blocked off the road for the duration of the ceremony.

The high school was represented by faculty members including Ms. Pothier’s guidance counselor Mary McDonald and principal Stephen Nixon as well as many graduates and current students.

Arranged as it was on such short notice, there was no program for the memorial but a card was printed with a photograph of Ms. Pothier along with a poem she wrote at age 13. It read in part:

I understand that life is short

I say live life to the fullest

I dream of a carefree world

I try to leave my mark

I hope to leave this judgmental path

I am small trying to break free from this simple world

During an anecdote Father Nagle articulated what he thought might be the reactions of hurt, anger and confusion of the loved ones of Ms. Pothier to last week’s accident:

“Where is our loving God at a time like this, why didn’t he prevent this tragedy?”

There were few consolations to offer, he continued, but giving thanks for and memorializing the life of Ms. Pothier was an important act.

Several who spoke said that Ms. Pothier had entered the world prematurely, just as she left it.

A dozen members of Ms. Pothier’s Plymouth sorority crowded the pulpit to remember their friend, several wearing sweatshirts with the sorority initials XAZ.

“Her laugh was bigger than her body and everyone recognized it,” said one sorority sister.

Ms. Pothier’s aunt read a poem and listed some things she had become in her short lifetime.

“She was a sorority sister, a snowboarder, a basketball, lacrosse and softball player, a musician, a Brownie, a godmother, a beloved niece, a most precious granddaughter,” she said. “Her final gift to someone was an organ, which gives us another sense of who she was. We wish she were still here.”

Hymns chosen by the family were sung throughout as communion was given.

And while Jay Pothier choked with emotion early on in his speech, he filled the church with laughter at his evocation of Ms. Pothier as a toddler, watching fireworks at the Oak Bluffs bandstand from his shoulders.

“She would pull my hair in the direction she wanted to go, it was her favorite thing to do . . . and I guess it was mine too,” he said.

After the service a reception was held at the Portuguese American Club in Oak Bluffs.