VIDEO: Heartfelt Tributes For Jamaican Who Dies 11 Days After Reaching Cayman
April 2, 2024A rural community in Jamaica is still mourning after one of its natives died 11 days subsequent to his arrival in the Cayman Islands.
Dwayne Butler passed away in his nocturnal sleep on 21 December 2023 – two weeks after he celebrated his 40th birthday.
His body was sent back to his native Jamaica for burial, which happened on Saturday (March 16), starting with a thanksgiving service at the Pentecostal Church of God in Top Hill district, Lluidas Vale Division, St Catherine.
In the eulogy, Fitzroy Bennett, a friend of the bereaved family, shed a bit of light on Butler’s final moments alive.
“Prior going to bed, he (Butler) would have said to one of his sisters, ‘Big Sis, my God, yuh inna pain and mi can’t help yuh’. And he retired to bed. He did not wake the following morning,” Bennett told the congregation.
He indicated that Butler, who was a farmer and mechanic in Jamaica, had left the island in search of a better life.
“He was always aiming for higher heights and deeper depths and, in so doing, he left Jamaica on the 10th day of December 2023, and was flown to Cayman Islands – not on vacation; not to skylark, but to further his dreams,” he added. “There are many question signs without answers, but God knows everything.”
The death was also a shocker for Butler’s friends and relatives, including his mom Sarah Butler.
“It shock mi; it shock mi,” the bereaved mother said emphatically after attending the funeral. “It shock mi, but I am not going to question God why he take away Dwayne from me, because one song writer says ‘the Lord gives and he takes away’. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
She joined others in speaking highly of her youngest son. “He is a young boy that I could depend on.”
Two of the late Butler’s siblings, in interviews with The Beacon, joined in lamenting the death.
“I love my brother very much; I miss him dearly; he was everything to me,” said Debbie Butler. “The death of my brother is so shocking; the morning I heard that my brother died I was lost for words. I am so devastated.”
Fitz Butler said the death seems surreal, adding that he found it hard to believe even after hearing that his brother’s body had arrived in the island for burial. “It seems like my heart comes out. When mi got the message or the phone call that him die, is like mi couldn’t believe it.”
Following the thanksgiving service, Butler’s body was brought a few miles downhill from the church to his river-side community of Lemon Hall. A marching band, accompanied by female dancers, added energy to the procession.
As the people neared the burial site, pall bearers removed the casket from an Empire Funeral Home vehicle and carried it mainly on their shoulders.
They reached the graveside during a light rainfall, which posed difficulty for them in negotiating a narrow slippery track that leads from the roadway to the grave-side.
Pastor Theophelus Thomas wasted no time in commencing interment.
Masons eventually sealed the grave, which was built with a concrete airplane at its top, highlighting the significance of the trip that Butler had taken. It also is symbolic of a dream grounded, never to ever taken off.
Butler was born on Sunday, December 4, 1983 to Sarah Butler and the late Renford Butler, who was known as Renny.
He attended Top Hill Primary School.
Though he was a mechanic and carpenter, he mainly was involved in agriculture – growing a variety of crops, while raising cows and other animals.
Though he was mischievous while growing up, he matured into a tidy, honest, industrious and generous adult, Bennett said in the eulogy.
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