Janet Thompson, one of five killed in Bluefields crash, remembered as good servant

Westmoreland entrepreneur and political activist Janet Thompson, who died tragically in a crash, was today remembered as a good servant of the people.

Thompson, a cluster manager for the opposition People's National Party (PNP) in the Whitehouse division in Eastern Westmoreland, died along with four others in a motor vehicle collision in Bluefields on November 13.

Bishop Joseph Campbell, of the Church of God Mountain Assembly, in delivering the sermon at Thompson's thanksgiving, said the church and the community of McAlpine had a great relationship with her, her family and that the church has benefited from her good services where she was a musician.

Campbell noted that she provided for her family through her grocery and haberdashery business in her McAlpine community.

“She cared for her family in a special way, so I want to address her as a good woman,” Campbell said.

“She was not the ordinary housewife who sat down and waited for a man to bring food to her table - she would have gone out and earned for herself,” he stated.

According to the spiritual leader, Thompson was a good woman who not only cared about herself but cared about others.

Thompson, 54, along with 15-year-old schoolgirl Lavecia Forrester and her 39-year-old mother, Petrina Wallace, of Gordon District, Whitehouse, Westmoreland; Oneil Allen, and his mother, 65-year-old Angela Samuel, both of Mount Edgecombe also in Westmoreland, died in a fatal collision in Bluefields more than a month ago.

It is reported that about 3:30 p.m. on November 13, the five people and another passenger were aboard a grey Toyota Noah being driven by 47-year-old Delroy Rodney of Belmont district when the minivan collided with a truck, which was travelling in the opposite direction on the Bluefields road.

Dr Dayton Campbell, general secretary of the PNP, who was on hand to pay the party's last respects, noted that Thompson, who served as a key member of the inner circle of the Whitehouse division in Eastern Westmoreland, has left both the party and her family saddened.

“I must pause to say that when persons have served us well, we have to acknowledge that service that she gave to our noble movement,” Campbell told mourners.

“We were saddened when we got the news of the untimely passing of one of our stalwarts, our worker, our warrior,” the PNP general secretary expressed.

He told the family that party president Mark Golding and the entire leadership is praying for them.

At the same time, the PNP general secretary has also encouraged them to support each other.

“We want for you to love and care for each other, not just today, but when everyone is gone and you still have those memories a week, a month [or] a year from now. We hope that you will be there as a family to support each other during those times,” said Campbell who is also the PNP's parliamentary candidate for the Eastern Westmoreland constituency.

- Albert Ferguson

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