THE EDITOR, Sir:
KINDLY GRANT me space to make an appeal to the Labour Day Secretariat 2001 to add the May Pen Cemetery to its list of Labour Day Projects. I hope it is not too late.
The cemetery is overgrown with vegetation, the roads are difficult to negotiate, the office, chapel and employees' changing facilities need repainting.
I would like to encourage all Jamaicans who have a loved one or a friend buried in the May Pen Cemetery, to come out on Labour Day and join in the cleaning up and beautification of the cemetery.
When I was a young boy, 'Kingstonians' or 'Kingy' (people residing in Kingston) as they are called, used to dress-up on Sunday afternoons and make their way to the May Pen Cemetery, in order to visit the graves of their loved ones and to watch the funerals as they entered the cemetery, especially the ones that had to do with the friendly societies. Those who for some reason or the other could not attend the funeral service at the church, would make their way to the cemetery in order to witness the interment or to look at the coffin or casket the deceased was afforded.
My company would be only too willing to participate in this project and would contribute cash and kind to make this piece of real estate a beauty once again and something to be proud of. I have visited cemeteries throughout the United States of America and I have seen tourists taking picture of monuments etc.
If this cemetery were to be returned to its former glory, I am positive that more families would use the facility and the horticultural industry would get a boost.
With today's high cost of cemetery plots in Jamaica, the May Pen Cemetery is among the most affordable in the country.
If it is not too late to get the cemetery included in the listed government projects, it should be added. Let us restore the cemetery to its former glory and never allow it to be run down again.
I am, etc.,
JOSEPH M. CORNWALL
Managing director
House of Tranquility Funeral Home Ltd.
172-172B Orange Street,
CSO, Kgn.
