Despite the grief faced by relatives of 18-month-old Rojel Jeremiah Hilaire Farrow at his funeral yesterday, family members still found it in their hearts to embrace the female relative accused of his murder.
Under police guard, the 20-year-old suspect, who was detained on May 18, sat near the oversized casket bearing Rojel’s body and muffled her cries at Belgrove’s Funeral Home and Crematorium, San Fernando.
Rojel’s father, Joel Farrow, sat and cried quietly as relatives tried in vain to bring comfort.
Even for Bishop Kawmi Jordan, the loss was too much to bear as he paused several times during his sermon to compose his emotions.
“They say tears show a sign of weakness but I would like to believe there is strength in tears. Bob Marley in one of his songs said, ‘Who feels it, knows it.’ As a minister it is part of my job to conduct funerals,” Jordan said.
Telling mourners their pain would not subside anytime soon, he advised them to trust God to ease their pain.
He added: “Everyone wants to be the greatest, everyone wants to be in charge, be the top dog, want to judge, want to be a lawyer, a police officer, an investigator because they were there and they know what happened.
“If you want to be recognised by God, you have got to come down. At the end of the journey, it’s all about God regardless of what we have accomplished.
“My advice to the family is to let go and let in God. Let God into very situation because he is in charge. Regardlesss of how we feel about the situation, it still resides with God. We may question, ‘How could this happen?’ The answer lies with God.”
He said in order to be forgiven by God, we too should forgive each other as he lamented too much time was wasted carrying grudges.
Baby’s death
According to police, the suspect and child was at a house at Exchange Road, Couva, on May 17 when she disciplined him.
She told police he had a tantrum, causing him to fall off a chair. Around 12.30 pm she fed him and put him down for a nap but when she attempted to wake him around 3.30 pm he was unresponsive.
He was taken to the Couva District Health Facility, examined and pronounced dead at 4.28 pm.
An autopsy by pathologist Dr Eslyn Mc Donald-Burris said Rojel died from internal bleeding caused by blunt force trauma he sustained on his body.