Devon DickRECENTLY, I attended three funerals within eight days and the common factor at these worship services was that the deceased were all murdered. Three funeral services in different congregations (Eastwood Park New Testament Church of God, Spanish Town Seventh-Day Adventist and Boulevard Baptist) with a common factor of the victims killed in their youth - two in their early thirties and one early forties.
Brother Pryce was a faithful taxi driver and longstanding member of his church. He has done errands for Calabar High School. The day he met his death, he had left his wife at her workplace Calabar High School for her to take part in the revived Carol Service. He never lived to return. A pastor's wife spoke glowing of his commitment to God before crying near the end of her tribute.
Andy Art Whitely, an ex-soldier, left a young wife and family to mourn his death. The father has to bury the son instead of the other way around. Too many persons are not getting a fair chance to live to enjoy three score and ten.
I baptised Georgette Monta-gue, affectionately called 'Marva', on April 4, 1991 and I officiated at her funeral service in February 2003. She did not believe in killing ants because she said that these hardworking ants have a purpose but her throat was slashed. She told her aunt not to kill the bugs that were eating the plants at the home in Queen's Hill because they will soon turn into beautiful butterflies and those plants will flourish again but she was brutally killed at that home in Queen's Hill. She was protective of lizards but her body was left to decompose.
Georgette has been described by her aunt, Yvonne, as a 'pure soul'. She did voluntary work at the Drug Assessment Detoxifi-cation and Rehabilitation Unit at the University of the West Indies. Dr Lorraine Barnaby said that this graduate of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, used art to help in the restoration process of these addicts. She attended the Wilmot Academy so that she could qualify as a practical nurse to care for her ailing grandparents and other elderly persons without charge. Her home was a community clinic for the young and the elderly. As a graphic artist, she created beautiful posters to promote the Sunday school and assisted in the design of the Church sign. She was soft-spoken and went about her job unassumingly and with pleasantness.
These deaths have left an aching void in the lives of family members. Some are in denial; others are angry; many are unable to eat regularly or sleep properly. At the funeral some fainted, others cried uncontrollably. Some have been to the hospital and have to depend on medication to survive.
To make matters worse, in the case of a grieving family that could benefit from a swift funeral, it took 12 days for an autopsy to be done on Marva. I have written to the Office of the Prime Minister but this problem still persists.
Death is a most traumatic experience for loved ones. It is even more stressful when the person dies tragically. Then the unnecessary stress of having to wait on a personal in-depth inspection of the body by a qualified doctor is just too much. Bereaved families are enduring great pain because of the inordinately long time it takes for an autopsy to be done.
The families need closure to tragic deaths and a quick funeral can aid the process. The society needs to be gentler and kinder to the dead. The way the dead are treated is a reflection on the society's values and attitudes.
It is only through the grace of God that families are surviving. At Whitely's funeral, the father read a lesson and he said he was able to do it because of Christ living in him. It is God who has to help families overcome when a loved one has been slain. When the most important human being has been removed brutally then it is only God can help us to re-order our lives and pick up the pieces. God has the final word by giving us hope even in death. Paul stated in Romans 8: 38-39, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life -will be able to separate us from the love of God" so it is possible to say deal with death with the help of God.
The Rev Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church.
