'Daddy served his country well'
Published:Monday | August 23, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Laura Redpath, Senior Gleaner Writer
Special Corporal Jermaine Cummings' Island Special Constabulary Force batchmates of 1998, along with the ISCF Association, were among the mourners who paid tribute to their fallen comrade at yesterday's funeral, but it was the remembrance by his son that evoked the greatest emotional outburst.
"Daddy, I love you and you served your country well. I love you, my daddy. My daddy, I love you so much," said the preteen, whose name was withheld, moving the congregation to tears.
On a warm Sunday afternoon in Kingston, family members grieved openly, as one of the special corporal's sisters broke down at the end of the service.
Despite all the tears, there were moments of laughter as Cummings' cousin regaled the congregation with tales from the cop's childhood.
"Jermaine was a greedy little boy," Karlene Irving said.
"Oh God!" some of the attendees exclaimed, laughing.
"That's why he learned to cook at a young age," Irving added.
She also said Cummings, who worked every summer as a teenager to earn money for schoolbooks, was talkative "like a parrot" and told his mother everything.
"Jermaine and his mother were like Tom and Jerry - full of jokes and laughter," she said.
As her remembrance went on, she grew more sombre, noting: "Jermaine struggled from the pit of poverty to the ladder of success."
Earlier, eight ISCF pall-bearers slowly marched into the Stadium Community Seventh-day Adventist Church, carrying the flag-draped coffin bearing the remains of Cummings, who was killed on August 1.
Cummings is among 11 law enforcers to be killed since the start of the year. He was murdered outside his home in Rollington Town, Kingston.
Five ministers of religion, including the chaplain to the police, the Reverend Edgar Henry, officiated at the ceremony, which lasted approximately two hours.
"This 'sin-thing'," said Pastor Lebert Hamilton, playing on the words 'sin' and 'something', "is really our worst enemy, which causes death."
Cummings' ISCF colleagues remembered discussing what it meant to be good policemen and women as they planned their future.
"God knows best," one of the women said with a sigh, as she left the service, following behind the pall-bearers.