Crematorium technician fired up about his job

For 44-year-old Andre Wilson, a friend's misfortune became his unexpected opportunity. More than a decade ago, when his friend lost a job at Madden's Funeral Home in Kingston, Wilson didn't hesitate to step in.

With guidance from his friend, he navigated the unfamiliar world of mortuary work. Today, Wilson is a seasoned crematorium technician.

It wasn't the future he envisioned. A graduate of Holy Trinity High School, Wilson trained as a mechanic, expecting to build a career fixing engines. However, curiosity led him down a different path.

"Mi just get up one morning, 'bout 6' o'clock, and say mi a go check it out," Wilson recalled. "Him tell mi everything bout di job, so mi just go apply. And from 2010 till now, mi still deh here."

However, adjusting to the funeral industry was no easy feat.

"Mi did get a two-week experience first, and mi run out a di morgue 'fraid," he admitted with a chuckle. "Mi co-worker affi tell mi fi tek mi likkle time and work in miself."

During the security operations in Tivoli Gardens in 2010, Wilson was on the frontlines, collecting bodies amid chaos and gunfire. More than 70 persons died during the stand-off between lawmen and criminals. The weight of the job pressed heavily on him.

"Yuh caah just run in pon di funeral ting. You a human being, and when yuh see somebody lay down deh, you a guh ask yuhself 'If mi pass off, a so mi ago look?' Dat did put a fear in mi," he said. But he knew that 'fear doesn't feed families', so with four children to care for, Wilson pushed through, relying on prayer and faith.

"Mi do it fi mi family. Mi trust God and just keep moving," he said. After years of handling bodies, Wilson moved up to his current position as crematorium technician.

The job of a crematorium technician involves handling and preparing the bodies for cremation, and ensuring all procedures comply with health and safety standards. Although cremation remains unpopular in Jamaica, Wilson sees its value.

"People dead every day, enuh. Yuh caah just a bury, bury, and tek up land space. If we never have cremation, di whole place woulda full a cemetery. Where we ago build the dream house? Where we ago farm?" he reasoned. Still, he's careful to respect the grieving families.

"Yuh cya force cremation on nobody. A dem loved ones, and some people cya bear fi know say dem family a get burn."

Despite the eerie nature of his work, Wilson has only had one unsettling experience. In 2016, a hearse transporting the remains of a person, broke down on John's Road in St Catherine As a skilled mechanic, Wilson was called to assist. He resolved the issue with the broken down vehicle, but he believed a spirit followed him home that night.

"Mi son jump out him sleep and seh a spirit attack him. By di time mi raise up mi head, mi feel it too," he recalled.

"One side a mi son face swell up same time," Wilson told THE STAR.

Through his years in the industry, Wilson has come to understand how 'spirits' operate, and has learnt how to navigate the unknown.

"Them thing deh travel, and being in the funeral industry you learn how fi handle it," he said. "It's not bout nuh oil business, that caah help nothing because spirit stronger than that overall. You have some people miserable when dem alive and all when dem dead it still nuh leave dem. You just haffi pray and trust God."