A Brother bids a final goodbye
I don’t like funerals. Worst of all I hate going to funerals of young people who never had a chance at life and all of its enjoyment and fulfillment. After covering the story for the past week of the 16 year old school boy who was shot dead by the police, Today I attended his funeral to not only cover a story but to show sympathy and respect.
Over the past week, covering the story from just about every angle, I was introduced to young Kelvin Fraser through the voices and tears and thoughts of his family and closest friends. A lot of times, people think that reporters are only there to get the story and move on, but after a while, the emotions of it all would sink in especially in such cases.
I remember on my first day of coverage speaking to his mother. She broke down and cried openly as she said every night since his death she would go to his room to see if he was on his bed and if she was really dreaming. It was no dream.
Friends supporting each other at Funeral of Kelvin Fraser
This was her nightmare. She could not come to grips with the reality of losing her only son. A son she loved and a son she cared for very much. She told me that she would cry all night because of the closeness they shared. He was a momma’s boy. She spoke about providing for him and giving him everything he ever needed. Raising him, she said, was no easy task. She was a single mother and it was tough at times for her, but she managed and was always there as a mother. Never for all of those 16 years, did she move away from his side. She always spent nights at home, always laughed and cried and hugged her Kelvin.
She was not expecting death when he kissed her and left home to go see his girlfriend. She did not know that was going to be her last good bye and her last hug and kiss. The next call she got was a call telling her that her son was in the hospital. The police came to pick her up and as they made their way to the hospital, she saw them suddenly take the road to the mortuary. This was not what she expected; this was not what she was prepared for.
It was only then that she was told that her Kelvin was dead.
A Young sister not wanting to let go
That was the beginning of the saddest time in her life and she still cries all day. At his funeral, she seemed blank. Crying nonstop but trying to be strong for her young daughter. That young daughter, Kelvin’s sister, could not hold back tears and gently rubbed the casket bearing his remains and she cried a final goodbye to the big brother she loved and loved being around.
Just next to her was Kelvin’s teenaged sweetheart who he loved dearly.She remembered calling him just moments before he died and him coming to see her. They spoke in the classroom and his last words to her professed his love as he promised her that he was going to buy her something nice for her birthday which was today. A promise was broken. Instead of the two hanging out for her birthday, she was sitting next to his casket, weeping. It was a birthday she will never forget.Kelvin’s father and other relatives could not fight back tears. They all cried openly. Screams shattered the silence of the Patentia area.Those images and stories will linger in my head forever. I never forget them. I still remember the Yohance Douglas marches and funeral and how his friends cried out for justice when he was shot dead by a policeman also.I could never get accustomed to death, although he seems so sometimes.
I could never get accustomed to covering the death of a young person who never got a real chance at life. Their dreams shattered. Their tears dried up. Today at young Kelvin’s funeral, one of his close friends sang Yolanda Adams’ Fragile Heart, a song I first heard when the baby of my close friend died in a tragic fall. As the young woman sang that song today, the memories of that baby and of all my friends who have gone to the great beyond flashed through my mind. It was all coming to me now.
I leave you with a few words from that song…
“I remember the first timeYou laughed with meI remember the promisesYou would never leave my sideNow I`m standin` with news of a tragedy standin` here with a fragile heart”
Gone too soon
