Melvin Innis gets second burial

Melvin Adulphus Innis, the Deeside, Trelawny, man whose body was mistakenly buried at another man's funeral, has been remembered as a hard worker who bore no ill feelings towards anyone.

"He would not say war, he would say love," nephew Versel Innis said at his thanksgiving service at the Hastings Baptist Church on Saturday.

Innis died on September 8. His family members were denied the opportunity of conducting his funeral with his body in the church as it was mistakenly buried a week earlier at the Blackwin Cemetery in Deeside. After the mix-up was discovered last week, health authorities consented for the body to be dug up and buried in the family plot in Greenvale.

"It is the first we have seen anything like this, but he would have managed the situation with distinction," Versel said.

Vanessa Reynolds, a granddaughter, said that Innis could have been relied on for sound advice.

"He was a lifelong farmer, either on his farm or as a farm worker in United States," said.

The Reverend Owen Brown, in his sermon, said that Innis was an officer of the church who was very vocal.

"He was also a generous contributor to the church," said Brown of the man, who was born 88 years ago in Bunkers Hill.