BOTH SIDES of the political spectrum were well represented at the official funeral of Lionel Seymour Craig (CHB) stalwart of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) at St Patrick’s Cathedral, The City this morning.
The BLP contingent, led by leader Mia Mottley, included her parliamentary group, while the Prime Minister of Barbados Freundel Stuart headed the Democratic Labour Party comprising his Cabinet members.
The service, running just under an hour and officiated by Father Clement Paul, also attracted members of the legal, sporting, journalism and entertainment fraternities.
In her tribute, Mottley said that Craig, who was member of the party for 53 years, “was a champion and a giant of a man in all respects”.
Using a quote from American author Mark Twain, Mottley said “‘the fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who fully lives is prepared to die at any time’ ”.
She said Craig told her a year ago that “he had been given an option for an operation which will extend his life, but might make him weaker in living his life and he shared that that was not [what] he wanted because he was content with the life that he had lived”.
Mottley said Craig, a former parliamentarian and member of Cabinet, had lived a full life.
“He did not want a eulogy and I will not betray his wishes this morning, but his family felt that for us to say goodbye to him without a sense of what he meant to us was to betray our own selves and our relationships with this man who had a lion heart and who was a champion and a giant of a man in all respects. The truth is, simply put Lionel Craig was a man of the people and in every sense he reflected that.” (JS)
