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Sydneka A Rose, a fifth grade student of Success Academy,
Nassau, and member of the Parkgate Seventh-day Adventist Church,
will remember the year 2007 for a long time. Formally, the month of
December was the best month of the year; first she would celebrate
her birthday on the 10th of December, then father would
celebrate his birthday on the 12th and of course the
Yuletide season. However, this year things were different as on
December 8 she received the worst news of her life, her father would
not be around for her birthday. As we walked through the last days
together, I wished I could spare her the pain of loss but all we
could do
 was love
her and be there.
Her
father, Randolph Rose, a member of the Maranatha Seventh-day
Adventist Church, Nassau, and a dedicated employee to the Ministry
of Public Service, died two days before his sixtieth birthday after
a short battle with cancer. In a service to commemorate his life,
friends and relatives spoke in glowing terms of a man who knew and
loved his God.
Maranatha Church pastor, Eric Clarke, who also serves as the
executive secretary of Bahamas Conference of Seventh-day Adventists,
expounded at the service in energetic tones the biblical principles
that framed the life of the deceased. Heavenly music, which brought
hope to those who mourned, was rendered by the Sanctuary choir of
Parkgate Church, the church of his wife and daughter. Randolph
leaves behind his father, seven (7) brothers, nine (9) sisters, many
nieces and nephews, but the deepest wounds are born by his wife
Michelle of thirteen years and his only daughter Sydneka, nine years
old.
How do
you comfort a nine year old whose world is shaken by the death of
her Daddy, a world made all the more special by being an only child?
I saw pain that seemed touchable as they committed his body to the
ground and she said her last goodbyes.
Death
is an enemy but it also offers an invitation to share in new ways
with those who have lost. The challenge is
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Patrice Williams-Gordon |
extended
to you today to share more than tangible gifts and cards this
Christmas; to share the love, the fellowship and family spirit with
others who this year have less people to love because of the unkind
visit of death.
Though
the rhythm of Sydneka's life has changed, together we will still
dance. Read the poem on the right I wrote to encourage Sydneka.
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My Daddy is Gone
-
- I
was born a princess
-
Though dad was not a king
- For
everything he ever did
- Said
only just one thing.
- That
I was special and precious
- Must
be handled with much care
- That
I deserved the very best
-
Though life is so unfair
-
- He
folded all he had to give
- And
stuffed it in nine years
-
Didn’t tell me he was soon to leave
- He
saved me the nightmares
- I
guess he thought it wiser then
- To
give it all we’ve got
- And
save ourselves the agony
- of
wishing for what’s not.
-
- He
started acting strange one day
- And
I couldn’t understand
- But
now I know that cancer thing
- Was
stretching our love band.
- God
knows I love my daddy
- And
couldn’t stand to see
- One
little girl be torn apart
- By
sickness and misery
-
- I
didn’t get a chance to hug,
- To
kiss, to play, to pray,
- Dad
slipped away so soon
- To
sleep until the coming day
- But
I will hold on to his love
- And
all the times we shared
- Its
strange but I still feel his love
-
Through those who’ve stopped and cared.
-
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©Copyright Patrice Williams-Gordon 2007
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