The cars, parked on both sides of the King’s Road and in all available vacant lots in the vicinity, made their own prior announcement.

A sitting Premier and a former Premier were in attendance.  So were the 3rd and 8th District Representatives and the Junior Minister for Tourism.

Dr Pickering and Ms Parsons, former Deputy Premiers, were also there.

The church was filled to capacity and the significant overflow into the large space of the Sea Cows Bay Methodist Church yard made movement into and out of the church difficult.  

Two Reverends officiated, assisted by a stalwart of the community who spends her retirement helping neglected elderly who exist in various stages of desperation.  

She is not compensated for her time nor the meals she prepares from her own pantry.

A small fraction of the money that flows through the greedy bill can help but, then, someone in officialdom would actually have to care.

Assisting the elderly would have been the work of community health nurses.  However, the hospital is merged with public health as a statutory body and, doubtless, the priority is critical care which will see the funding disproportionately applied.

The mentally ill walking the streets, unaided, is also a testament to a failing primary health care system.

But we digress.

Cassandra E. Sutton Forbes deserved the last respects that were heaped upon her by a public that recognized her caring spirit.

She, who had so little, brought comfort to many with her presence and kind words.

She attended funerals almost as a vocation.  She didn’t have to know the deceased, personally, but she understood that one should never be left to mourn, alone.  

And in any case, she may have remembered that line from the Beatitudes that promised:

“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”  And she was determined to offer whatever comfort she could.

The service was tasteful and fitting for a lady who put the interest of others above her own.  And although, in the end, the public assisted her with housing, it came too late.  

Her aboard, in her critical illness was the Dr D Orlando Smith Hospital.  There she lay in life’s waiting room listening for the announcement of her one-way flight which we are all obligated to take.

It was fitting that on Saturday, so many stopped their activities to witness the takeoff of her flight; just like she had done for countless others before.

She left with all the grace and dignity the community could muster.  What made it poignant was that she, a daughter of the soil, was an ordinary citizen.

Fridays was impressed.

May her soul rest in peace.

Happy Friday!