Before his death last month from pancreatic cancer, the presence of David Thompson, the Prime Minister, was sure to bring out many members of the Diaspora.
It was his determination to establish a personal relationship with overseas nationals that endeared him to so many people, whether they lived in Toronto, New York, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Amelia Island in Florida, or in Birmingham or Reading in England.
And that didn’t begin after he became the head of Government.
As Opposition Leader Thompson routinely financed his travel expenses to be with Bajans at their dinners, luncheons, family days and other cultural events.
That explains why since his passing there has been such a massive outpouring of grief among Bajans of all walks of life. Nowhere was it more displayed than at memorial services in Toronto, Ottawa, Boston and New York.
“It was quite heart-warming but not surprising to see the turnout,” said Barbados’ High Commissioner to Canada Evelyn Greaves after the “service of thanksgiving” at the Parkdale United Church in Ottawa.
“It’s obvious that Barbadians in Canada felt connected to the Prime Minister.”
Anglican Archdeacon of Toronto Peter Fenty, a Barbadian, preached the sermon at a combined Independence and Thompson memorial service in the Cathedral Church of St James. He said it was “obvious that people felt deeply about his loss to the country” and to the Diaspora.
“David, like all of his predecessors in office, served our nation with passion and distinction, courage and great love for country,” Fenty told the overflowing crowd of mourners.
“His virtues as a fine human being have been spoken of, and his ability to relate to persons of all strata of Barbadian society and beyond tells a lot about the man and the humanitarian he was.
“Some of those who have eulogised him spoke of his death as making Barbados and the Caribbean the poorer.
Example
“I think that David’s life, work and now his death made Barbados, the Caribbean and the world richer because of the contribution he made, what he stood for and the example he set as a public servant of the people.
“The best tribute we can pay our beloved Prime Minister is to pursue the vision he had for Barbados and the Caribbean; make family life a priority in our goal setting, and hold firm to the Christian faith he believed in.”
In Brooklyn, the Very Rev. Eddie Alleyne, a rural dean of the Episcopal Church and rector of St Gabriel’s Episcopal Church, delivered essentially the same message at Beulah Church of the Nazarene in St John’s Place.
A visionary
Alleyne, who along with Barbados’ Consul-General in New York Lennox Price, prayed with the seriously ill Prime Minister when he was a patient of a New York medical centre a few weeks before his death, described Thompson as a “visionary”.
He said that Thompson was a father who put family first and a leader who “touched us in ways we never thought to be touched”. And he did it while displaying a “true sense of community”.
In a tribute, Price who also attended a memorial service in Boston, told mourners in New York City that Thompson was a “colossus” who was “revered by the Diaspora and will be forever cherished by us.
“For he embraced us and was of the view that we have an integral part to play in the economic, social and political development of Barbados”.
Greaves agreed, saying later in Ottawa that Thompson’s keen interest in the Diaspora was communicated to the nation’s diplomatic and consular corps, insisting that the heads of missions and Foreign Service officers engage Bajans abroad and put relations with them at the top of their list of priorities.
“He was truly a compassionate person, a humanitarian interested in people from all strata of society,” said Greaves.
At the memorial services in different cities musical and verbal tributes dominated the programmes, and in Ottawa a special poem in Bajan dialect by John Harewood reminded the congregation that “de PM gone, girlie, Gone too early to beyond . . . . Comprehension, son before father and mother, like nature vex”.
The sermon there was delivered by Rev. Dr Anthony Bailey.
In Toronto, Counsel-General Dr. Leroy McLean also delivered a tribute.
