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J’can philanthropist loses mother to COVID-19

Published:Thursday | May 21, 2020 | 12:07 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer
Pastor Emanuel Azan and his mother, Tilletha Hyde.
Pastor Emanuel Azan and his mother, Tilletha Hyde.

Pastor Emanuel Azan is a broken man as on Saturday his mother, Tilletha Hyde, lost her battle with COVID-19 at Jacoby Hospital in New York.

It is particularly painful for him as his mother had always expressed the desire to be buried in her homeland of Jamaica, but now, he can only take her ashes home.

“Imagine, we placed her in a nursing home so she could be properly cared for. She could not move around, so someone must have taken the virus to her,” Azan said.

His mother, who was 89 years old at the time of death, struggled for years with diabetes and had lost both legs to the terrible disease.

Although in the past she had many close shaves with death, she always managed to pull through.

“We feel betrayed, because the safety protocol was breached. Someone took the infection to her. The doctors said she fought hard as she was expected to die about three days before, and she held on,” said Azan, who added that he genuinely believes his mom was trying to outlive the virus so that she could return to her beloved home and be buried.

GIVING PERSON

Azan, who is engaged in ministry, also operates a registered charity in Jamaica – Kingdom Outreach International – for the sole purpose of helping the various communities he is engaged with, such as Effortville, Farm, Palmer’s Cross and Christiana. He makes yearly treks to the parish of his birth, Clarendon, to conduct Vacation Bible School, have back-to-school and food and clothing giveaways.

Azan also supplies football gear to schools and neighbourhood teams and hosts an annual Christmas treat for the residents.

The May Pen infirmary has also benefited from his outreach, as well as seniors for whom he has built flush toilets

Remembering his mother, he said she was a woman who always embraced other children, accepting them into her fold. He was seeing her sharing whatever she had with other children in the community.

“The other thing I can truly credit to her is her giving spirit. She was a giver who never forgot where she came from. She would bring food and clothing to the needy in our neighbourhood every time she visited Jamaica,” he recalled.

It is therefore not surprising that the army veteran is now involved in preaching as well as welfare ministry.

Azan, who hails from Farm in May Pen, migrated in to the United States in 1976.