Da died on the nineteenth of August 2012 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

 

Eventhough difficult I want to share his memorial with you.

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Da was a hard man to dislike and I know that it is common at funerals to only remember the good things, and to omit the things that would embarrass someone. In my father’s case, the most remarkable thing that was said about him by all who knew him; was that he was a good man.

 

Our father was born on the sixteenth of November nineteen twenty-nine in King Street in the City to Joseph and Gwendolyn Agard, he was the second of four children. Da’s parents died when he was at an early age and so he was raised by his grandmother who was an ardent member of the White Park Wesleyan Holiness Church and he use to say he had to go to church for breakfast lunch and dinner. This had a profound impact on the way he lived his life until the day he died.

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Our fondest memory of Da is when he talked of the love of his life who then became his wife and how he came to live at Fifth Avenue Park Road Bush Hall, St. Michael. He said that his friend Roy use to take him along with him to his (Roy’s) girlfriend’s home, and she had a friend whose name was Audrey and things materialized, when I say materialize as he put it “he fell hopelessly in love with her”. As the courting progressed, Da said that one day Audrey said to him “George, you down there all by yourself and I up here all alone why don’t you move in with me and my parents, he said it was like if it was ordained. Da moved in with Audrey and her parents, who loved him dearly. By that time Audrey had given birth prior to three children of her own Arlean, Anthony and Eric, to whom he fathered and loved as his own. At the age of twenty-six Da and mummy had a son of their own Patterson and he saw this was good, so he didn’t stop there, so then came Patricia, Grace, Everick and then Suzanne.

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I would like to share a quotation that totally epitomizes my father’s true character; it is taken from the bible 1 Corinthians chp. 13. When I think of this quote, I think that the author had Da in mind when he wrote it. After this quote is read I would elaborate to justify this belief.

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“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trust, always hopes; always preserves. Love never fails.”