‘Mi miss him from mi heart’ - Gully Bop’s mother cries for ‘son that never left her side’

Norma Blake, the mother of Gully Bop, was the picture of grief at yesterday's thanksgiving service for her son at the Louise Bennett Garden Theatre on the grounds of the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre on Hope Road, St Andrew.

Since his death last October 31, tears have been her closest companion, but Blake, who spoke of her close bond with her son, is hopeful that she will see him again, somewhere, somehow.

"Mi really love him and mi really miss him to mi heart. From him pass off, I don't stop cry. Sometimes mi daughter keep on a rough mi ... so mi go one side and cry," Blake, who was being comforted by a relative, told THE STAR.

She referred to Gully Bop by the name which she gave him at birth - Robert [Lee Malcolm] - saying that "him was a good boy from him was small", and that of all her children, he was the one who never left her side.

"This mek three son mi have who died. Thief kill the other two on the road. And I have a daughter who died, too. Four children mi have who died. Mi really miss him because him never leave mi. I hope to God that some day we will meet each other on the bank of that beautiful river. I would like to meet him again."

Blake shared that Gully Bop was at her home in Grants Pen when he fell ill; however, she was in the country with her daughter. After he went to the hospital, she never saw him again.

"I never expect him to die. I know him was sick, but I never know it was cancer until afterwards. Then mi seh, 'How Robert get cancer and we don't come from cancer family?' Him just gone. I miss him so much, and I am sad mi never see him before," she added.

One of her concerns was that after Gully Bop got sick, "all who he used to give money, dem talk bad things about him, seh him a go back inna di gully go live". She stressed, however, that at no point was her son living in any gully, and shared that she never did like the moniker.

"But him accept it, so that's okay," she said.

The entertainment fraternity was a no-show at the thanksgiving service, which was attended by mainly close relatives, one of whom, Francine Wedderburn, gave a dramatic remembrance punctuated with exclamations of "and guess what", which had attendees on the edge of their seats.

Wedderburn shared that Gully Bop was proud when his first child - Debrika Malcolm - was born and sought to assure her just how much she was loved by her father. Debrika told THE STAR that she had forgiven him a long time ago for not being a good father, and used it as a lesson to teach her five sons to "treat anything that start with 'W' with respect".

Gully Bop's son, Nico, was smooth as he described him as "a typical Jamaican father". He attended to his father's body at the funeral home where he works and explained why the entertainer was dressed in a red suit.

"Red is the colour that he made his entrance in. The first interview on ER, he was in a full suit of red ... red Hollister shirt. That was his favourite colour. He will be missed, but his legacy will be there for everyone to listen," Nico said.