It was the first time she met Prime Minister David Thompson.
It was one day after he died that Geri-Ann Roth received the call from James Wilson, of Downes & Wilson Funeral Home, that her services as an embalmer would be needed to prepare the late Prime Minister’s body for a five-day public viewing.
Prior to that meeting on October 23, Roth had seen him only on television, or in the newspaper.
“I got the call on the Sunday from James Wilson. He told me we had added security, the fridge is locked, the morgue is locked, so you have to let me know when you’re coming so we can let you in,” said Roth, who was trained in London. “I told him I was coming on the Monday, and James said the family wanted to view the body [on the] Wednesday before the public viewings.”
While Roth had relished the opportunity from a professional standpoint, the moment also brought with it a substantial amount of pressure. After all, it was her job to get the body looking like the man Barbados had grown to love in time for his public viewing two days later.
“For any embalmer, a case like that is your pinnacle,” Roth said. “Not to say you’re belittling anyone else, but the exposure wasn’t only local, but regional and international. Then, in terms of him, he was a young man with great visions for Barbados and the whole country seemed to love him. Now, you had to please all those people.”
Anxiety
Roth didn’t run away from the responsibility, though she harboured her own fears and anxiety.
“The other thing that came into play was the dramatic change the cancer had produced in him,” she said. “At one point, he was puffy and then he was drawn. So the whole country saw this transformation. You then had to get him back as close to what he was before the cancer really took its toll on him.”
Roth knew it was no easy feat because his body had been ravaged dramatically by the effects of pancreactic cancer.
“I came down the Monday, and when I saw him there was further change in terms of his features,” she revealed. “It just did not look like him. That’s when it really hit me as to what I had to do.”
At that moment, as she was viewing him, and taking in his presence and the volume of work she had to do, Roth admitted she started to feel anxious and stressed.
“Strange enough, all along I was kind of anxious. I was honoured that I had to do him, but when I saw him, it was like: ‘Oh my God, can I do this?’ “
“But from the time I did my little analysis of him and when I touched him, it was [as] though this great calmness just came over me. I just felt like ‘Geri, you can do it, girl’. The anxiety and stress just dissipated. I’ve never had a funeral this big, but normally with a high profile funeral, you could get an instant migraine.?But [if] you’re really into your job like I am, it could affect you. But with him, despite the great expecations, I just got so calm, it was unbelievable.”
Embalming is a process in which blood and gases are removed from a body and replacement fluids are pumped in to temporarily retard its disintegration.
During the process, small incisions are made in the body and fluid is injected into arteries, while the blood is drained.
Along with this process, Roth, who began working on Thompson’s body the same Monday, also had to perform certain aesthetic touches to improve the body’s appearance for public viewing.
“He died with a slight smile on his face, so I guess he was at peace. Basically, he had this Mona Lisa smile, so I just had to manipulate the tissues a bit and it worked.”
On Wednesday, October 27, the family previewed Roth’s work before the body was presented to the public.
“The family came in. [Personal physician] Dr [Richard] Ishmael couldn’t believe it, he walked all around him,” Roth said. “Everybody was pleased, his wife, his mother . . . . The family’s only request was that he have his glasses.”
Though Roth admits that she’s not a religious person, after years of working as an embalmer she does believe there is a certain energy or feeling, whether that’s good or bad, that comes from working with the dead.
“Sometimes, you just get this energy from a body and you could just spend the entire day with them,” she said. “That’s how it was with him. From what I could feel, he had a strong personality, but a certain level of calmness.”
