Barbados in mourning: PM Thompson is dead

(Barbados Nation) Barbados has been plunged into mourning with the death of Prime Minister David Thompson. He died this morning at 2.10.
According to reports, he died at his home in Mapps, St Philip with his family by his side.

Thompson served as Prime Minister of Barbados from January 2008 when the Democratic Labour Party won the government. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September.

It was during May that Thompson, accompanied by his personal physician Dr Richard Ishmael, announced to Barbadians that he was not well and was seeking medical attention. On September 30 Thompson gave his last address to the nation, where he also announced a Cabinet reshuffle.

Thompson, 48, leaves to mourn his wife Mara and three daughters. Freundel Stuart is Barbados’ new Prime Minister. He was sworn in at Government House earlier yesterday after the passing of former leader David Thompson.

David Thompson

Adriel Brathwaite, the new Attorney General, was also sworn in yesterday.

The full Cabinet was to be sworn in at 3 yesterday afternoon

New Leader of the Opposition Owen Arthur, spoke glowingly about the deceased Prime Minister in a press conference held seven hours after Thompson passed away at his private residence in St Philip early yesterday.

“Prime Minister Thompson was one of the most remarkable Barbadians of his generation,” Arthur told reporters at the headquarters of the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament Buildings.

“His death, at the height of his intellectual and oratorical skills and powers, unfortunately means that we will never truly get to know the full extent of his possible contribution to the development and transformation of the Barbadian economy,” Arthur said.

“He was one of the most remarkable Barbadians of his generation,” Arthur said, adding that he pursued his work with “what can only be described as a distinctive vibrancy, passion and panache which truly set him apart.”

“As a result, his memory will never wither and can never grow old, but will live on in the minds and hearts of Barbadians forever,” Arthur added.
“While we served on opposite sides I never for a moment entertained any doubts of the sincerity and the completeness of his commitment to the advancement of the interests of the people of Barbados,” Arthur said.

And in expressing sympathy to the family of the deceased, he wished Thompson “peace and rest.”

“I trust that the trumpets will sound for him on the other side,” Arthur added

As a nation mourned, a similar picture of despair and grief gripped those in Thompson’s stomping ground of St John.

Thompson, 48, ruled St John politically since he was 25 and as news spread of his passing early yesterday, almost all and sundry from Bath to Colleton to Martins Bay to Gall Hill, cut a forlorn and crestfallen look.

The boys in Colleton shouted “The Boss is Gone,” a woman in Bath, hailed him as a father and a brother, a group of people cried at a bus stop in Gall Hill, an elderly man in Coach Hill, simply said that Thompson would be irreplaceable.

When the Nation team visited the sleepy eastern rural parish just after the crack of dawn, many seemed so crushed by Thompson’s passing, they were speechless.

The glum-faced expressions said it all.

Donna Batson of Bath Land, couldn’t hold back the tears or her feelings.

“I have lost my father, my friend, my brother. He was everything to us. This hurts.

“When my mother died he was one of the first people that visited the family. It is so sad. Thompson was a top man,” she said.

The Estwick family of Colleton were very close to the Thompsons, and  every member of the household was moved to tears, none moreso than 28-year-old Alwyn, his barber before he became Prime Minister.

“My father gone. I can’t believe he is gone. A good man is gone. “This morning is one of the worst days of my life. He was a father figure. I loved this man,” said a sobbing Alwyn.

Thompson’s housekeeper for the last two decades, Monica Parsons broke down after comforting family and friends at Thompson’s residence in Mapps, St Philip.

She was at home when Thompson’s wife, Mara, phoned to give her the news.

Two others that were very close to him, were overcome with grief. His long-standing constituency aide, Kathlene Padmore, was teary-eyed and his driver, Kelvin ‘Dopey’ Howell, cried himself to sleep. In Carters, St John, big John Haynes, one of Thompson’s staunchest supporters, took it hard. “This lick me up. It’s devastating. Although I knew what the situation was, I am still in shock,” he said.