By Lolita Long, Gleaner WriterNEW YORK:
MEMBERS OF a Jamaican family were killed last week in an accident in Pennsylvania, United States.
At a service in Mt. Vernon on Monday evening for Horace Wilson, 47; Darren Wilson, 15; Shane Wilson, 14; and Christopher Taylor, 17, everyone was touched by the magnitude of the tragedy.
The tears flowed as mourners filed past the three coffins of the Wilsons' at the Macedonia Baptist Church in Mt. Vernon.
A large portrait of Christopher, a former Calabar High School student, stood guard over the coffins. His vital organs were donated and, at the request of his mother, Mrs. Diane Carter, his remains were cremated. The urn with his ashes stood next to the three coffins in the church.
The sole survivor of the tragedy was Rhona Wilson, former manager of the Grace Remittance/Western Union Outpost on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn, and also of JAMPRO and the Jamaica Consulate office.
An obviously shaken and seemingly sedated Rhona bore the scar of the accident, a golf-sized lump on her forehand with bruises to the face. It was not a time to talk to her, only to hold her hand and, as Melrose Rattray said, "just groan".
"By groaning, one is able to express oneself. It tells the pain, the suffering, the anguish," Rattray said.
The family was going to a convention in Maryland when they stopped to change a car tyre, reports say. A tractor-trailer mowed the family down as they got back into the car, overturning some distance away. The driver of the trailer was pinned in his vehicle for more than one hour but was released from hospital the same day.
TRAGEDY
Likening the tragedy to the trials and tribulation of Job in the Bible, and the children "as real Samuels", the various ministers encouraged Rhona and the family that despite the physical separations, and with the tears cascading down the cheeks, the greatest tribute is to "give selves to God and, like Job, will rise again".
Rev Edward Norman, of the Grace United Methodist Church, declared that "the day of change will come ...God brought you too far to leave you now."
Rev. Al Miller, of the Fellowship Tabernacle Church in Jamaica, who travelled from Jamaica to give support to Rhona and the family, brought out the hallelujahs and the amens when he said, "when you know God you don't have to know why."
Mayor of Mt. Vernon, Ernest Davis, in paying tribute to the family, said that it "behoves us to do our best," and that there "is some order in all of this pain."
Tribute after tribute from close family members, friends, church members remembered Horace, a former banker at National Commercial Bank in Jamaica, as a philosopher; Darren, as high-spirited, Shane as withdrawn and Christopher, as one who had many challenges.
EVALUATE THEMSELVES
Sunday school essays read by Rev. Dean Brown, of the Christ Alive Christian Centre, brought tears to the eyes of the congregates. They were all given assignments to evaluate themselves on honesty and how to change.
All three children started their schooling at Sts. Peter and Paul Preparatory in Jamaica and, upon migrating to the U.S., continued their education at the A.B. Davis Middle School and later the Mt. Vernon High School where they excelled.
Tributes also came from Brenda Smith, Superintendent of School, Mt. Vernon City School District, and Dr. Larry Spruill, principal of Mt. Vernon High School.
Interment was at the Kensico cemetery, Valhalla, New York.
