‘Loving son of the soil’

PALLBEARERS CARRYING the body of former Queen Elizabeth Hospital director Neville Millington to the hearse. (Lennox Devonish)

Sat, September 01, 2012 - 12:03 AM

BARBADOS HAS LOST a gentle, loving son of the soil in Neville Oswald Roy Millington.

His standing room only service took place yesterday at Whitehall Methodist Church, Whitehall, St Michael, where he was the choir director. Glowing words of tribute came from the Rotary Club of Barbados South, where he was a director, family and Reverend Roslyn Harper-Johnson.

Describing Millington, 70, also a former director of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, as a father figure, Rotary Club president Katrina Sam-Prescod said he had an excellent sense of humour and, while slow to speak, was firm in his guidance.

“He will never be forgotten in Rotary,” she said.

In her sermon, Harper-Johnson said Millington knew the “experience of uncertainty” during his illness but never once complained.

“Often we allow worry to overwhelm us; we go from being worried to becoming anxious and anxiety can become an illness of the mind. It can seriously prevent us from living useful and active lives because anxiety divides our minds: should we enjoy life or should we worry about the situation?

“Our brother Neville had that same option but I am pleased to say he did not choose to live a life of anxiety; he recognized God was still acting in the situation and therefore recognized God,” she said.

Harper-Johnson recalled the times when she visited Millington in order to minister to him but he ended up giving her and her husband advice instead. She said Millington was more concerned with his wife Patricia and his family than himself, but eventually understood that God would take care of them as well.

Millington was cremated during a private ceremony at Coral Ridge after the service. He leaves behind wife Patricia, brothers Peter and Philip, and many nieces and nephews. (CA)