By Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter
Dr. Denise Eldemire-Shearer, wife of former Prime Minister Hugh Shearer, gives him a kiss in his casket while his sons, Lance (right), and Howard look on. The occasion was the viewing of Mr. Shearer's body yesterday at Vere Technical High School, Hayes, south Clarendon. Today, Mr. Shearer's body will be at the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union's headquarters, Duke Street, central Kingston, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. - Ricardo Makyn / Staff Photographer
BLACK FLAGS flapped reluctantly in the wind yesterday atop light posts leading up to the entrance to Vere Technical High School, Hayes, south Clarendon, where the body of Hugh Lawson Shearer, a former Prime Minister, was lying in state for viewing.
At a few minutes past 10 o'clock, the day was already hot, but this was no deterrent to the scores of well-wishers and former constituents who came to pay their respects to Mr. Shearer, their one-time Member of Parliament. He died at his home in Hope Pastures, St. Andrew, on July 5 at the age of 81 years.
It was a scene of competing sights and sounds as the sombre mood inside the auditorium, where Mr. Shearer's casket was guarded by four members of the Jamaica Combined Cadet Force, contrasted with the loud bell-ringing, crying and chatting from the outside.
For the politicians, red eyes and dark glasses were common as they too paid their respects. Even the stoical Edward Seaga, leader of the Jamaica Labour Party, cried as he viewed Mr. Shearer's body.
oblivious of the friends who tried to calm her.
Citizens, from the very old, to the very young, entered the auditorium for a final look at Mr. Shearer. One mourner, 80-year-old Mary Williams, a long-time resident of Rocky Point, south Clarendon, walking with the help of what appeared to be the top end of a broom stick, slowly made her way to the casket where she held high a framed certificate she had received from Mr. Shearer. She then bade him farewell.
A GOOD MAN
Ms. Williams said that nothing would have prevented her from paying her last respects. "I have to come. He is a good man to us. So much good. He gave (us) anything we want when we ask him. He is not a bad man, so we have to come."
The mourners included 13-year-old Sasha-Gaye Baker, a benefactor of The Rocky Point Fisherman's Fund, which was Mr. Shearer's brainchild.
"In 1993, eight men went out to sea and six of them drowned", Mr. Denzil Lewis, a member of the Fund's board, explained. "Through the inspiration of Mr. Shearer they set up the fund for the children of the survivors to receive financial aid until age 18."
Sasha-Gaye: I feel sad. He was a very good man.
She said Mr. Shearer's memory would have a double significance for her this Sunday, the day he is to be buried in National Heroes' Park, central Kingston, as it will be when she celebrates her 14th birthday.
