‘It is an attack on all of us’
Neighbours mourn beloved community pillar Barbara Gayle at emotional vigil
Published:Sunday | December 22, 2024 | 12:14 AMCorey Robinson - Senior Staff Reporter
Barbara Gayle was the community jester, its prayer warrior, the loving ‘Aunt B’, whose daily messages of inspiration, faith, and “mix-up stories” residents of Block A at the Caymanas Country Club Estate (Phase 1) and its environs had come to love.
Now, they must learn to live without her. No more of her rambunctious laughter. No more of her kind and gentle ways. For now, there’s only grief, anger, and an unsettling sense of vulnerability behind the gates of their community.
Their most prized and costly asset – security – had been breached; costing them one of their most beloved members. And last Thursday night, they gathered with candles on Arnold Palmer Loop, singing, crying, and praying in Gayle’s memory.
While concerns about the future of their security – an issue that has long been the citizens’ association’s top priority – were certainly present, for that moment, they took a backseat.
“We have no timing, nor the knowledge as to what God will do, and as a community, we have gathered not to throw blame or cast aspersions,” charged Ainsworth Norton, moderator and past president of the association. “But I know the pain that we all feel at her passing. It feels like it is an attack on all of us.
“The Lord has been speaking to my own heart that as a community, we need to begin to pray,” said Norton, announcing the commencement of a prayer service every first Monday of the month. It is what Barbara would have wanted, he said. “So that we can take the community before God, because we don’t know what God is going to do from one day to the next.”
The candlelight vigil started at 7:30 p.m. and long after 9 p.m., residents were still turning up. Some walked sombrely past Gayle’s home, now a cordoned-off crime scene, though lights shone brightly inside the house as if she were home. Even the garden torches at the entrance to the ill-fated home seemed to dance with Gayle’s usual excitement upon seeing visitors.
“It will be very hard for me to process driving out in the mornings and not seeing her, or not getting the voice notes that she would send out to us,” offered resident Nicholas Miller. “Everybody would have known Aunty Barbara – the big T-shirt with the cap, the three-quarter pants, and with some form of bush in her hand, either cerasee or she picked her susumba. She was one of the individuals who embraced the entire estate.”
That was evident even outside of the gates of the community. Gayle was a fount of gladness and inspiration at several shops along the main road leading to the gated community.
To shopkeeper Kerry, the slain veteran journalist, who meticulously covered the courts for The Gleaner for more than five decades, was the epitome of humility.
“If she comes to di shop and don’t see me, she a park and walk come around [to] mi yard. And she was always asking about my 14-year-old youth,” Kerry offered, pained that she could not pay her respects at the secured vigil being held inside Caymanas Estate. She, however, played a gospel song – the last message Gayle sent to her phone – sparking reflective silence among customers and her relatives who had gathered nearby.
Inside Caymanas Estate, Sandra Karr, vice-president of the citizens’ association, reflected on Gayle’s passion for telling tales.
“We had a very loving relationship. She always created a story about some man that I have over Block B, or some Englishman in a red shirt that I have. When she is ready to make up a story on you, trust me, it is a believable story. But it was all in fun and out of love,” said Karr, her voice now shaky.
“She is everywhere – that ever-present feature in the community. She was a friend of not just residents inside, but also those on the outside of the community. There are people who I have no idea who they are, but Ms Gayle knows them, and does so lovingly. I am happy to have known her,” she added.
“It (Gayle’s death) never hit me until I came here tonight, and you know, the house is empty, candles are there. It is crazy to think about,” shared Nykefah Nairne. “She left in the will of God and she still had her faith. I am sure, to some extent, that even in her last moments, she still had faith. She had that kind of heart and character.”