LEWISTON – Friends and family of Mary Goranites packed Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church on Thursday to say goodbye to the woman they called grandmother – “yiayia” – mother or aunt.

Goranites died Saturday at the age of 92.

A native of Greece, she was the matriarch of the local Greek community and the aunt of U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, who Goranites raised along with her own five children.

Her memory lit up the faces of those who gathered to celebrate her life. People who weren’t related felt related to her. There was something about Mary Goranites that made her special, they said.

“She watched over us,” Jimmy Simones said as chants filled the air and people filed into the church.

“I was an altar boy,” he said. “I remember Mrs. Goranites saying, ‘You have to be a good altar boy and not get into any trouble. Listen to your parents.’ She instilled this tremendous respect for the community and family.”

Lewiston native Mary Kotsifas-Field of Kennebunk said Goranites was related to her father. “So losing her is like losing my connection to my past, my parents.” She remembered Goranites as “like my second mother. We always called her aunt. We were in each other’s homes all our lives.”

Sitting next to her was Kay Kotsifas of Auburn. Before she married into the Greek community, Kotsifas had already met Goranites. “Her daughter and I roomed together in college.” Kotsifas went home to the Goranites home and enjoyed meals.

She’ll remember Goranites best for her “loving, upbeat spirit.” The way she always welcomed people into her home. No one left hungry, both women agreed, raving about her cooking.

During the recent Greek festival, Goranites, who was then in a nursing home, didn’t want to miss the celebration. She was brought in her wheelchair.

As Thursday’s service began, ushers came down the center aisle with the casket. Priests sounded bells and released incense. Following was Snowe and other immediate family members, the grown children and their children. At the front of the church the casket was opened in Greek custom.

During the service, prayers were said and sang in English and Greek by two priests, the Rev. Ted Toppses of Lewiston and the Rev. Basil Arabatzis of Saco.

Then the priests remembered Goranites.

Toppses said he visited her not long before she died. “She looked at me and said, ‘I want you to let them know that I want them all to have many blessings, as many blessings as the hairs on my head,'” Toppses said.

“Mary lived a life where she worked so hard to bless so many and love so much. Mary’s heart was always with God.” The priest said he remembered her in church often, always sitting in her spot right up front, smiling.

When arguments broke out among family or friends, Goranites would shrug and say, “It’s O.K.” She brought people together, Toppses said.

“Whenever we come across a life such as Mary’s, we need to cherish and understand that God has blessed our lives with angels, living angels,” Toppses said. “May her memory be eternal. She is with the Lord.”

Arabatzis recalled Goranites at gatherings. Person after person would go to greet her and hug her. “May we become ever so much more like her.” Not perfect, he said, but someone surrounded by love.

The service ended with each person greeting the immediate family, then stopping in front of the casket to offer their own goodbyes.