Westmoreland PNP activist remembered as ‘good woman’, ‘no ordinary housewife’
Published:Monday | January 1, 2024 | 12:09 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau:
Janet Thompson, a political activist and entrepreneur of Westmoreland who died tragically, was remembered as a good servant and who was not an ordinary housewife.
Thompson, a cluster manager for the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) within the Whitehouse division in Eastern Westmoreland, died along with four others in a motor vehicle collision in Bluefields on November 13.
Bishop Joseph Campbell, of the Church of God Mountain Assembly, in delivering the sermon at the service of thanksgiving for the life of Thompson on Saturday, said the church and the community of McAlpine had a great relationship with her, her family, and that the church has benefitted from her good services where she was a musician.
Campbell noted that she was not an ordinary housewife and operated a grocery and haberdashery business in her McAlpine community where she provided for her family up to the time of her passing.
“She cared for her family in a special way, so I want to address her as a good woman,” Campbell said.
“She was not the ordinary housewife who sat down and waited for a man to bring food to her table – she would have gone out and earned for herself,” he stated.
According to the spiritual leader, Thompson was a good woman who not only cared about herself but about others.
Thompson, 54, along with 15-year-old schoolgirl Lavecia Forrester and her 39-year-old mother, Petrina Wallace, of Gordon District, Whitehouse, Westmoreland; Oneil Allen, and his mother, 65-year-old Angela Samuel, both of Mount Edgecombe, also in Westmoreland, died in a fatal collision in Bluefields more than a month ago.
It is reported that, about 3:30 p.m. on November 13, the five people and another passenger were aboard a grey Toyota Noah being driven by 47-year-old Delroy Rodney of Belmont District when the minivan collided with a truck which was travelling in the opposite direction on the Bluefields road.
PNP ‘warrior’
Dr Dayton Campbell, general secretary of the PNP, who was on hand to pay the party’s last respects, noted that Thompson, who served as a key member of the inner circle of the Whitehouse division in Eastern Westmoreland, has left both the party and her family saddened.
“I must pause to say that, when persons have served us well, we have to acknowledge that service that she gave to our noble movement,” Campbell told mourners.
“We were saddened when we got the news of the untimely passing of one of our stalwarts, our worker, our warrior,” the PNP general secretary added.
He told the family that PNP President Mark Golding and the entire leadership are praying for them. At the same time, the PNP general secretary encouraged them to continue to love and care for each other.
“We want for you to love and care for each other, not just today, but when everyone is gone and you still have those memories a week, a month [or] a year from now. We hope that you will be there as a family to support each other during those times,” said Campbell, who is also the PNP’s parliamentary candidate for the Eastern Westmoreland constituency.