JEFFREY?PAYNE was so saddened by the death of late Prime Minister David Thompson that he felt the need to do something creative to show his love and appreciation for him.
Yesterday he presented the Thompson family with a beautiful floral wreath shaped in the map of Barbados and bearing an official photo of the late Prime Minister in the middle.
Payne told the DAILY?NATION it took him a week-and-a-half to build.
“When the Prime Minister died I was speechless – I was overwhelmed with tears. I was thinking all the time how can I?show my sympathy and the idea came to me to build a wreath.”
He said he designed the 11 parishes using pieces of square glass which were given to him by Jubilee Supplies. He used battery-operated lights donated by Linda’s Disco to light the wreath.
He also received sponsorship from Armstrong Agencies, Taylor’s Cycle Centre and his partner Aaron Yearwood, who assists him in a foundation he formed called Old Help Foundation, which provides for the needs of elderly people.
 He purchased the red, yellow and purple artificial flowers from stores in Bridgetown.
“All through the storm me and my team worked on this wreath to get it ready for the funeral and everybody who saw it told me how nice it looked,” said Payne, who is also called “Professor Payne” because of his designing skills.
Payne, a staunch supporter of the Democratic labour Party, said that from the time Thompson publicly announced that he was ill, he tried to help him.
“I did not know where he lived but I drove around in St John and St Philip until I found his house and I gave his daughters some DVDs on healing which I got from an herbalist and told them that I?think it would be of some use to him.
“They told me thanks a lot but I?believe it was too late to save his life because weeks later he died.”
Payne, who gave the wreath to close family friend and Thompson’s press secretary, Natasha King, said he hoped the family would keep it as a memento. (MB)
