Mourner dies on way to funeral

Navar Mason was inconsolable as she spoke about his mother Patricia Porter-Brown who died last Friday, two days before her sixth wedding anniversary, when the vehicle she was travelling in exploded after overturning along the Rowlandsfield main road in St Thomas.

The 58-year-old was reportedly heading to a funeral to support one of her church sisters from her home parish of St Mary. Mason, 33, said that his mother, a well-respected woman in Port Maria, loved attending funerals.

“If my mother has 100 photos in her phone, 95 of them ago be pictures weh she dress up and tek a funeral. That is what my mother enjoyed doing. So the fact say mi cyah go get fi pretty har up fi her own funeral, bredda, di sumn hurt me. Mi cyah see har or touch har again. Mi cyah see back mi mother again,” he said. “We are human beings and we understand that if you are born in this world, you must die. But it is the manner in which she died is killing us. She don’t deserve that. The entire Port Maria is in mourning now.”

Mason confirmed that his mother’s body was completely burnt, making it impossible for the family to give her the send-off that she deserves.

“We have persons who are criminals and committing various crimes and this is not how they meet their demise. But a lady who is like a giver to the entire community died like this,” he said.

Deon Creightney, a childhood friend of Porter-Brown and business partner, said that she was a peacemaker who loved helping others.

“If yuh call pon har fi anything, as long as she have it she nah say no. All when yuh hear she say she no have it, by evening she a call yuh fi it. The accident mek di day look cloudy, everybody have a sad face. Every single soul inna di community have a sad feeling, even the pickney dem. She had no conflict with anyone, very easy-going as a person, but very much a go-getter. She is a mother to her kids and other children in the community. She is a people person,” she said.

Nakesha, Porter-Brown’s first child, said she has lost her best friend, one who she has always celebrated and admired.

“She was like my sister. My mother was a young mother, but I grew up with her. She was selfless. She never second guess when it comes on to giving, sharing and giving her best. She didn’t know who was being buried, she just went there to support her friend. To her, her grandkids were everything and that was the last conversation we had. She told me that she wasn’t spending enough time with her grandkids and that was something she was looking forward to the most,” she said.