Eulogy Storm Parottee woman says ‘Elda must be laughing in her grave’ after funeral drama

Gwendolyn McRae is holding on tightly to the Seek notebook containing the unfinished eulogy that erupted into a funeral storm, declaring that the little book has now become one of her most treasured possessions.

McRae was delivering the eulogy for her longtime friend, Fundora Elda Lindo, at the September 13 funeral at The Hill Top Seventh-day Adventist Church in Parottee, St Elizabeth, when her microphone was abruptly cut.

Her remarks appeared to ruffle feathers among relatives, particularly after she suggested that Lindo had not received the best care during her later years.

McRae told THE STAR that she began putting the eulogy together years before her friend died, recording instructions she said Lindo gave her over time about what she wanted said at her funeral. On some occasions, she said, Lindo was sitting with her as she wrote.

“I know Elda is pleased. She must be laughing in her grave because what she said I am to do, I did. I did not add on and I did not take away.”

According to McRae, those instructions were not occasional requests but conversations that took place repeatedly over the years.

“She always come and she always say, ‘Ms McRae, when I pass on, write this, write that, tell this, tell that,’” McRae recalled.

The retired English teacher said she transformed her friend’s words from Jamaican patois into standard English, but maintained that the substance of the eulogy came from Lindo.

“I only put it together in the Queen’s language, but not as how Elda would give it to me in the patois,” she said.

McRae remains adamant that she fulfilled the promise she made to her longtime friend.

“I tell nothing but the truth and the whole truth. I don’t lie in church,” she said. “What she said I am to do, I did.”

Now, following the contentious funeral, the notebook containing those years of instructions remains in McRae’s possession.

“I still have the book. That is a treasured possession of mine. I am not going to lose it because other people’s eulogy in it as well,” she said.

Lindo, affectionately called ‘Funnie’, was 88 when she died on June 19 of this year.

A livestream of her funeral has since circulated widely online, showing McRae delivering the eulogy before her microphone was cut, leaving online viewers unable to hear what was being said as the service became disrupted.

McRae said the reaction did not surprise her. Before beginning the eulogy, she had warned mourners that she expected “a storm”.

“I expected them to react that way because when I started the eulogy I started by saying, ‘I expect a storm.’ After Elda ask me to read her eulogy, I expect a storm, but I am prepared to go through the storm,” she said.

According to McRae, Lindo had repeatedly confided in her about alleged mistreatment by some of her relatives.

McRae said she began the eulogy with a verse from the book of Proverbs before addressing how children should treat their mothers.