Gone too soon!
As a nation mourned, shaken to the core by the death of beloved Prime Minister David Thompson, a similar picture of despair and grief gripped those in his stomping ground of St John.
Thompson, 48, ruled St John politically since he was age 25 and as news spread of his passing early today, almost all and sundry from Bath to Colleton to Martins Bay to Gall Hill, cut a forlorn and crestfallen look.
The boys in Colleton shouted “The Boss is Gone”, a woman in Bath, hailed him as a father and a brother, a group of people cried cried at a bus stop in Gall Hill, an elderly man in Coach Hill, simply said that Thompson would be irreplaceable.
When the Nation team visited the sleepy eastern rural parish just after the crack of dawn, many seemed so crushed by Thompson’s passing, they were speechless.
The glum-faced expressions said it all.
Donna Batson of Bath Land, couldn’t hold back the tears or her feelings.
“I have lost my father, my friend, my brother. He was everything to us. This hurts.
“When my mother died, he was one of the first people that visited the family. It is so sad. Thompson was a top man,” she said.
The Estwick family of Colleton were very close to the Thompson’s, and every member of the household were moved to tears, none moreso than 28-year-old Alwyn, his barber before he became Prime Minister.
“My father gone. I can’t believe he is gone. A good man is gone.
“This morning is one of the worst days of my life. He was a father figure. I loved this man,” said a sobbing Alwyn.
Thompson’s housekeeper for the last two decades, Monica Parsons broke down after comforting family and friends at Thompson’s residence in Mapps, St. Philip.
She was at home when Thompson’s wife, Mara, phoned to give her the dreaded news.
Two others that very close to him, were overcome with grief. His long-standing constituency aide, Kathlene Padmore, was teary-eyed and his faith driver, Kelvin “Dopey” Howell, cried himself to sleep.
In Carters, St. John, big John Haynes, one of Thompson’s staunchest supporters, took it hard.
“This lick me up. Its devastating. All though I knew what the situation was, I am still in shock,” he said.
mikeking@nationnews.com
