Dying disgrace - One year later, family hasn’t claimed 77-y-o’s remains

WESTERN BUREAU:

More than one year after a 77-year-old woman’s badly deteriorated body was discovered at her home in Chatham, St James, residents who described her as a household name and community benefactor are fuming that her skeletal remains are still unclaimed inside a funeral home.

John Seivwright, who recounted the charity and benevolence of the late dressmaker and household helper, said that he was heartbroken that Dazerine Clarke’s last rites had not been treated with regard.

“She worked in various households throughout the Eden Vale section of Chatham, where she was born and spent her life. The older folks remember her as good, kind, and decent-speaking woman. She sounded like she came out of the Queen’s palace. She was so respectful,” Seivwright told The Gleaner.

On October 8, 2018, Clarke’s remains were found by neighbours inside her small board house, where she lived alone. The woman’s bones, some of which were being feasted on by dogs, were removed from the scene by the police and subsequently turned over to Doyley’s Funeral Home in Westmoreland.

While Clarke was highly revered in her community, especially at the Pentecostal church where she worshipped for 55 years, her children, who are reportedly aware of her death, have not come forward to bury her remains.

“It seemed as if she hadn’t spent enough time with her own children. She had a son, and the boy never dealt with her at all,” said Seivwright, who recalled him refusing to see his mother when he was told that she was sick and needed assistance.

One of her daughters, who reportedly resides in Kingston, was contacted by the police to participate in a verification exercise but never turned up.

“The last information I got was that a daughter was supposed to come and give a DNA sample to match to the bones and she said she is not coming back down here,” said Seivwright, who noted that the deceased woman also has other children overseas and other close relatives.

COMMUNITY CONCERNED

“The community is concerned that from the time the bones were discovered until now, we don’t hear of any funeral plans, or if there was a funeral. Not even the police report we’ve seen in the media,” said Winston Dalley, who remembers Clarke from his days as a student at Goodwill Primary School, also in St James, in the 1950s.

“She was a sharp-minded neighbour who insisted on the proper pronunciation of her name,” he said.

When Doyley’s Funeral Home was contacted about their protocol regarding unclaimed remains, The Gleaner was told that the police could apply for a pauper’s burial but that approval would have to be granted by the municipal authorities.