MONTEGO BAY, St. James (January 24, 2017): Staff of the St. James Municipal Corporation joined the family of the late Vernon ‘Rasta Villa’ Gibson to celebrate his life during a thanksgiving service at the Delapenha’s Funeral Home Chapel last Friday (January 20, 2017).
Gibson, who died on November 28 last year, lived on his own until a month before his passing at which time, he was a resident at the St. James Infirmary.
“He was well-known by staff and possessed a very colourful personality, was very proud, and was not afraid to speak his mind,” said Mrs. Merline James-Russell, Inspector of Poor at the Municipal Corporation (formerly Parish Council),in her eulogy for the 66-year-old.
‘Rasta Villa’ was under the care of the Board of Trustees for Street Victims established by the Commission of Enquiry Act into the forced removal of some 18 homeless persons from Montego Bay to St. Elizabeth on July 15, 1999.
The Board of Trustees is a five-member panel made up of a representative from the St. James Ministers’ Fraternal, St. James Lay Magistrates Association and the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development as well as the Chief Executive Officers from the Cornwall Regional Hospital and the St. James Municipal Corporation.
The funeral service also included attendees from the Board of Trustees, the Infirmary and the Open Heart Charitable Mission.
Going Home: An employee from Delapenha Funeral Home Staff is assisted by officers from the St. James Municipal Corporation’s Poor Relief Department during the funeral service for Vernon ‘Rasta Villa’ Gibson.
Officiating Minister, Reverend Godfrey Francis, in his sermon charged man “to consider the days he spends on earth, and to do good with the time he has when he is alive”.
Added Reverend Francis: “While we have the time, we must use it well; Time lost cannot be regained, and the opportunity we have today must be grasped will, for now it is a time to do, to be, and to become.”
‘Rasta Villa’ was interred at the Pye River Cemetery. He is survived by his son Kimar Gibson, a grandson and other relatives.