Paradise Here We Come – The Day Is Finally Here

Some people have brought their own hymn books and we are encouraged to hum if we don’t know the words, occasionally I share a book with Aunt Meg and although there are a lot of hymns I don’t know their tunes are easily picked up after a verse or two.

As the evening continues people are still arriving in trucks and cars, younger people stand back in groups leaning against vehicles parked up on the road. The night is dark and the cool breeze picks up our voices and carries it away over the hills. Sandwiches and drinks are passed around as the singing continues and before you know it is 10pm.

Monday morning we walk over the road to a beach side cafe for breakfast where the water laps on to the shore a few metres away.

The bay has several boats moored on its waters, a fuel tanker sits a quarter mile out and we think some of the boats are waiting for it to open shop so fuel can be bought. It looks choppy on the water, the waves cross the bay from right to left. Across the bay pelicans can be seen searching the ocean for food, every now and then landing on the sea.

Frigate birds soar high above the bay and gulls wander on the shore looking for breakfast. We watch a Yellow Crowned Night Heron stalk the shore line as we look at the menu, breakfast for us was omelette and lots of coffee.

Uncle Sidney’s body was taken to the family home this morning before going to the church. Family members meet at the house before accompanying the body to the church, Mike and I walked straight to the church.

The Anglican Church sits at the bottom of one of the many hills in Hillsborough, at 160 years old it looks in good shape. Inside the plaster walls are painted white with blue reassesses round the windows. All the windows are at pew height and are opened outwards, oscillating fans are situated on the walls above the windows and face down onto the congregation. The ceiling in the church is boarded, like all the houses we have been in and has vast wood cross beams which hold the roof up. I spy a Barred Owl perched high in the rafters minding its own business and wonder if this is his home.

Outside the occasional bleeting can be heard from a few sheep which wander up the hillside.

Uncle Sydney’s coffin arrives at the church and is open for people to view, the family fill the pews in front of me and word goes round we are now waiting for the boat to arrive from Grenada as lawyers and judges are on their way over. The law courts in Grenada have closed today. They arrive dressed in their formal Barrister robes, one wearing a wig like I’ve seen barristers wear in the UK. The service can begin presided over by The Reverend Canon Clement E Francis, Mike gives the Eulogy, cousins Lester and Sean read passages from the Old and New Testament, hymns are sung and holy communion is given to family members.

When the service has ended we follow the coffin back up the road to the family home, gospel music plays from speakers in the hearse. Uncle Sidney is to be buried at the family home where the grave has already been dug next to SC and Mamma. (Mike’s grandfather and grandmother) The day is hot, the sky full of clouds and the breeze makes it bearable as when the sun comes out you could fry an egg on the sidewalk.

At the graveside reverend Francis says prays, we sing hymns and Sydney is finally laid to rest.