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Icilda Parker-Dunkley was among people singing her husband’s praise during his burial at New River in Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth, on what turned out to be a wet Sunday afternoon, September 04. Stanley Overton Dunkley, better known as Waff Waff, 77, who escaped death on previous occasions, passed away on 31 July 2022 while undergoing treatment for illnesses at Black River Hospital in his native parish. “He is a nice person and kind; I miss my husband,” Parker-Dunkley told The Beacon after laying a wreath on her spouse’s grave, build beside that of his older brother Ricardo Dunkley. The remote family plot, in the vicinityRead More →

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Retired educator Florence Spaulding-Ferguson has been laid to rest at Thetford Park Cemetery in Old Harbour, St Catherine. The 73-year-old lost her battle with stage four uterine cancer on Monday, 27 June 2022, at Linstead Public Hospital where she was admitted for just over a week. A number of people attended her thanksgiving service on Monday, August 15, at the Church of the First Born of Jamaica, Bethel Gospel Hall, in her adopted hometown of Linstead, St Catherine. She was an active member of that church, even serving as secretary. Mrs Ferguson, the ninth of 12 children for her parents, hails from humble beginnings inRead More →

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Despite the pain he feels in losing his mother Jennifer Gidden, 32-year-old Javil-Don Beason told hundreds of mourners that he has found an amount of solace in the fact that he took special care of his mom to the very end. He, being an only child, was taking his mother to Linstead Public Hospital on the morning of May 18, 2022 when she drew her last breath, ending a period of illness at age 62. Gidden was a few months shy of her retirement as vice-principal at Charlemont High School in Linstead, St Catherine. During the thanksgiving service at Linstead New Testament Church of GodRead More →

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Amid tears and laudatory tributes, relatives and friends gathered to pay final respects to Vernon Theophilus Lowther, affectionately called Mass Vernon, during a thanksgiving service, which was held at Lluidas Vale Seventh Day Adventist Church in St Catherine on Sunday, May 1, 2022. Mass Vernon, 87, transitioned on February 11 at Linstead Public Hospital, ending a protracted period of illness. Adassa Lowther-Scarlett, one of Mass Vernon’s five children, said her father was hardworking, firm, loving, humble, humorous, kind, and family orientated. Providing proof, she took the congregation into her childhood, reflecting on her dad’s creativity in the kitchen, his love for talk shows, the scaryRead More →

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Albertina Francis stood for minutes staring inside the glass-top casket bearing the corpse of the husband she lost on Valentine’s Day - Donovan Francis, affectionately called Danny. The 66-year-old has been eulogized as humble, kind, reliable, God-fearing and loving to all he’d met. During the thanksgiving service on Monday, April 4, at the Tower of Hope Deliverance Centre in Point Hill, St Catherine, his nephew Kerone Hall said: “He was a man of few words, but his actions were always well done. His action spoke volume whether it was at home, in the community or at church… Donovan would give the shirt off his backRead More →

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A weeping Britannie Wilks laid her head on the top of her father’s coffin, still in disbelief that she has lost her only remaining parent, revered for being humble and kind. Evon St Aubyn Wilks, called Blacks and Leon, 45, was found lifeless in his British apartment 10 February 2022. His relatives had raised an alarm regarding his whereabouts after they could not contact him via phone for a three-day period. He succumbed to an ailment. Wilks’ body was brought back into his native Jamaica for burial Tuesday, March 22, in his family plot, located in his rural childhood community of Top Hill, Lluidas ValeRead More →

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A cool wind swept through the sun-kissed family plot located beside the house where Grace Scott, affectionately called ‘Miss Scotty’, spent virtually all her life. Her stillness in a pink and white casket starkly contradicted the life she lived - doing daily chores and tilling the soil around her family’s home, which is nestled on Juan-de Bolas mountain, Lluidas Vale Division, St. Catherine. Miss Scotty, 76, passed away on 24 April 2021, ending her decades-long battle with illnesses. Her body was interred beside her mother’s grave on Friday (May 14) amid national restrictions aimed at curbing the COVID-19 pandemic. During a ceremony at the graveside,Read More →

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A mother was among people who wept yesterday at the burial of her only child, Favion McLeod, also called Flat Bush and Star Boy. The 40-year-old party promoter, business operator and homeowner was gunned down in broad daylight on January 6 at his native Magazine Lane in Bog Walk, St. Catherine. Reports are that he was waiting to be picked up to attend a party, which was being hosted by one of his cousins. A gunman, who is yet to be apprehended, appeared in a motorcar and shot McLeod multiple times. He got the fatal blow to the head. Speculation is rife that the incidentRead More →

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Sashane Berry, better known as ‘Sash’, was buried at Ewarton Cemetery in St. Catherine yesterday, April 21, amid lingering suspicion especially among her relatives over what may have caused her demise. She died on the night of February 12 while travelling during curfew hours from an illegal party held at Lluidas Vale, St. Catherine. The 28-year-old was heading out of Lluidas Vale when the motor car in which she was travelling crashed into a mound of earth at Water Sink - a section of Lluidas Vale main road that runs through Worthy Park Sugar Estate. She was sitting in the front passenger seat of theRead More →

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Fitz Albert Bennett, whose aliases included ‘Moses’, could have acquired enormous fortune and fame, but he was unwilling to pay the spiritual price. The 72-year-old was much younger when he, along with two friends, got a big opportunity to do music with Reggae legend Bob Marley in Trench Town, Kingston. But the trio eventually shunned the opportunity. Fitzroy Bennett, a son of Moses, explained: “The only reason why Daddy, Uncle Thomas and the other person did not cut a record with Bob Marley; Bob Marley wanted them to deny Christ and pick up Haile Selassie.” Moses went on to become a deacon in the church.Read More →

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On a day when many people were celebrating their mothers, 10 siblings were still grappling with the remnants of grief. They buried their mother – Mary Bryan-Simms, also called Aunt Mary – on the eve of Mother’s Day. She was 92. The matriarch of a relatively large family, Aunt Mary could have gotten one of the biggest funerals ever held in her native Pennington district, Lluidas Vale Division, St. Catherine. However, the funeral arrangements were scaled down significantly due to national restrictions, which Government imposed to slow the spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The restrictions include a 10-people limit at funerals, as wellRead More →

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Men did most of the crying at Mountainside, St Elizabeth, where a relatively large crowd gathered to say farewell to Mabel Brown-Gordon on a sun-drenched Saturday afternoon, April 13. The 104-year-old St Elizabeth native, who died peacefully in St Andrew on March 17, was described as a prayer warrior, an ambassador for peace, a woman who wore no mask, and a stickler for traditional values. Her granddaughter, Michelle Shaw, who delivered the eulogy inside Brooklyn Church of God of Prophecy, said Brown-Gordon, for example, believed that ‘the woman was responsible for the upkeep of the house’. That view, of course, did not go unchallenged byRead More →