A pall of gloom it is for this casket-bearer on his way to the burial spot. - photos by Paul Williams

On January 5, we told the story of the sorrow the men of Mill Bank, Portland, were bearing after they had lost eight members of their community.

The eight were among 14 were were killed in a market-truck crash at Dam Bridge in Portland's Rio Grande valley, on December 19, 2008.

The men of the community have been holding their own as they must move on with their lives. Yet, at the funeral for seven of the deceased on Sunday, January 25, the fire of their pain was reignited.

They discarded their usual blasé attitude towards solemn occasions and were now an epitome of grief. Their faces betrayed the hurt they were going through. In the heavy rains, several men and women carried the caskets from the community centre where the service was held and from the hearses to the grave sites.

There was no shortage of volunteers to mix the concrete and construct the top of the graves.

It was heartbreaking to see one man rolling uncontrollably in the heavy mud. His friends tried to prop him up, but he wallowed some more. It was a sad day that will be forever etched in their collective memory, a terrible day that words cannot adequately describe. So, today, His Story brings you a montage of scenes from the funeral; a photo-essay of unbridled grief.

paul.williams@gleanerjm.com

A man in distress being restrained by his friends.

Cheer up my brother. Leon Palmer (right), who lost his son, brother and common-law wife, is being consoled by a friend.

Their faces, and the buttons with pictures of the deceased, say it all.

Desi Fuller, a survivor of the ill-fated market-truck accident, is haunted at nights by the faces of the deceased.