TOBAGO LANDSLIDE VICTIM BURIED

Why did Tyrone Keston McMillan die the way he did? Why was this 30-year-old father of one, who was eulogised by Giselle Thomas-Roberts as “kind-hearted, tender and loving,” cut down in the prime of his life by a landslide? These and all the other questions being asked by friends and relatives will remain unanswered in this life. They will only be answered at the end of time, affirmed Deacon David Harrison. Deacon Harrison made this clear to the packed congregation at the St Paul’s Anglican Church at Delaford, in east Tobago, yesterday, as he delivered the sermon during McMillan’s funeral service.  The church is located about 200 metres from where McMillan met his death last Friday after a landslide crashed onto the van he was in the process of moving to safety, near his home. This and other landslides left a trail of death and destruction in Tobago’s north-east end after the island was pounded by heavy rains during last Thursday night into Friday morning.

Kathy-Ann Ferguson, a 16-year-old Bishop’s High School (Tobago) student, of King’s Bay, Delaford, was also killed when a landslide swept over and reduced to rubble, the house to which she and other members of her family had gone seeking shelter. Deacon Harrison asserted that the question “Why?” will be asked over and over by McMillan’s bereaved relatives and friends. He advised that it was all right to question his tragic death, and God expected this to be so. But even as we ask why, he stressed that we must put our trust and faith in God; and we must look to Him for the comfort and consolation that He will provide through His love for mankind. At the same time, he lamented that as humans, today, we were short on love. There was a shortage of love in the communities, he noted. Deacon Harrison urged the congregation to show more love to one another, and take example from the deceased who was well known for his love and kindness. McMillan’s mortal remains were interred in the churchyard cemetery.