Footprints: Hyacinth Campbell - A caring mother

An excellent cook. A caring aunt. A daring mother. That was Hyacinth Campbell.

Kleveland and Alga Campbell welcomed their daughter Hyacinth into the world on June 24, 1954. They grew her with love and kindness and insisted that she showed these traits to others throughout her life.

Campbell, affectionately called 'Mamma', grew up in Tremolesworth, Highgate, St Mary, with her four siblings. She had three brothers and one sister and they enjoyed their childhood, like many Jamaicans, playing different games and picking and eating fruits.

Campbell was dubbed an excellent cook. Her family and friends remembered her as the lady who would prepare mouth-watering meals that would cause her family, or anyone else who was present, to 'lick their fingers'.

Campbell had three children - Beeni, Rolly, and Dave - but she extended her love and her roof to her stepdaughters Collen and Careem. She loved them all dearly.

Campbell and her significant other, Eleston Thomas, joined their households together, splitting different roles and responsibilities to take care of their children in the best way they could.

She extended the love a little further.

Campbell took care of three of her nieces and a nephew.

"She was a hard-working woman," her grandniece said.

Campbell was a family person. She loved her children and grandchildren very much, and as she got ill, they became her main focus.

Then the inevitable happened.

Campbell made her transition on September 25 and a thanksgiving service was held for her on October 18.

She predeceased her mother, and she leaves behind 14 grandchildren and other relatives to mourn her death.

Her memory will remain with them.

She was 61.

-Rasheda Myles