Plans in high gear for Martin Henry’s send-off this weekend
Published:Friday | June 28, 2019 | 12:00 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Family members and residents of Ramble, St Thomas, came together over two days this week, sharing memories and laughter, as they prepared the final resting place for educator, public affairs commentator and Gleaner columnist Martin Henry.
According to his family, they are on track to give their beloved a fitting send-off.
Niece Hope Henry, who was among those present when The Gleaner visited the burial site on Wednesday, said her uncle had expressed a desire to be buried in rural Jamaica.
“He definitely wanted to be in the country. [I] guess [not] going to Dovecot [in St Catherine] or so was something personal for him,” she said.
“The actual digging started yesterday morning, but they reach far,” the niece added.
“They going very fast ‘cause this morning, they didn’t start to lay the blocks, and look at it now. Most of the persons here are community people. Family is here, too. This is Ramble, but he is from a farther community called Somerset, but quite a few of them used to live in Somerset so they are very familiar with him, although he left country very young,” she added.
Henry was very active in his community, despite his migration years ago.
“He was a very, very regular visitor. One thing the people can say is that if anything happening, Martin will be here,” she said.
The foreman, Trevor Morgan, who was responsible for constructing the grave, said he has built so many graves, he has lost count.
Ruby Henry, another of Henry’s nieces, said that the Lord was helping the family get through their grief.
Henry, 61, passed away on Tuesday, May 28, after he collapsed moments following a live Prime Time News interview at the TVJ studios, where he had been part of a discussion around the death of former Prime Minister Edward Seaga earlier that day.
He will be remembered in a thanksgiving service this Sunday at the Kencot Seventh-day Adventist Church on Osborne Road in St Andrew.
His body will be interred in a family plot in Ramble, where The Gleaner understands his mother, two brothers, grand uncles and cousins had also been laid to rest.