FROM AS EARLY AS 10:30 a.m., while the state funeral service for former Prime Minister David Thompson was being held at Kensington Oval in St Michael, men, women and children took up positions along Four Roads, St John, to await the cortege on its way to St John’s Parish Church.
By midday more than 250 people had gathered, and they waited patiently and shared memories of Thompson who was also their parliamentary representative.
The cortege arrived at Four Roads at exactly 1 p.m.
Among the people who were there to pay their respects was Sabrina Dawson, who is due to give birth on November 10.
“This is very important for me as it is the last time I will see him,” she said sorrowfully as she sheltered from the midday sun under an umbrella with her cousin.
Also there was Carmen Boxill who bore a picture of the late Prime Minister. The Cherry Grove resident said she could not look at the picture because each time she did it made her
“feel like crying”.
“I have been here a while now but I am here to pay my final respects even if I have to stand in the sun another hour,” she said while holding back tears.
“I know at some point I have to accept his death but not yet. I can’t believe he is really gone. That is my PM. I am going to miss him.”
Seventy-six-year-old Marjorie Holder, who admitted to forgetting her dentures at home, said she left her Cherry Grove home where she would normally be relaxing or reading a book because she had to see the cortege.
“Somebody called me the Saturday morning and told me he died and it hurt me to my heart.
“I don’t know how I would feel to be home and didn’t come here today.
Yeah, I just had to come and see him pass. From the time I heard of his death I really didn’t have any energy to do anything,” she added.
As soon as the procession passed, the large crowd quietly dispersed. (MM)
