Friends celebrated the life and friendship of late businesswoman Rozanne Gribble with the music she loved, first at her funeral service at Vauxhaul Methodist Church, and later at the graveside at Christ Church Parish Church where she was laid to rest yesterday.
At the service conducted by the Reverends Philip Saunders and Henry Bourne, tribute after tribute painted a picture of a loyal friend who loved life and who was “the child of the village of Vauxhaul (Christ Church)” and of whom public relations executive Alison Saunders-Franklyn said she shared 50 years of friendship, while Lucille Moe spoke of the “dancing and music, core features of her existence.
“How could we mend a broken heart?” asked another friend, parliamentarian Mia Mottley. “To know Rozanne was to love life. She was zany, talented, complex, a loyal friend fulll of passion…above all else generous in spirit,” Mottley said, as friend after friend stood at the lectern to speak about their relationship with the former owner of the Cafe Blue Restaurant chain and the Irie Blue company.
There were also tributes by Dr Allyson Leacock, Shone Hope and the Vauxhall Methodist Church Choir, and by Rozanne’s daughters Summer and Amber and nephew Cheyne Russell.
Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, Minister of Culture Stephen Lashley and former CBC-TV?personality Denise Shepherd-Johnson were among the large gathering of mourners that included many from the artistic community, all filling the newly-built Methodist Church.
A tear fell softly from many an eye as Kim Derrick gave a moving rendition of Regina Belle’s If I Could, while the congregation was brought back to a sobering reality of life with a reminder from Methodist Minister, the Reverend Marlene Britton-Walfall in the Homily, that possessions and plans were not important in the face of death. She urged those present to “refocus, reposition and redirect” their lives.
Respecting Gribble’s dying wish that bright colours be worn, people turned out fashionably dressed in various colours of the rainbow echoing the late entrepreneur’s effervescene.
Standing out was the gaily-painted orange and blue casket with an equally-colourful abstract design of a “phenomenal woman” on the cover, all lovingly painted and signed by Summer.
At the graveside songs Isn’t She Lovely by Stevie Wonder, Taurus Riley’s, She’s Royal and Super Blue’s calysonian Jambalaisse were played.
