Gem made people laugh in life and death

By design, funerals are sombre events that elicit a great deal of weeping, sadness, mourning.

That, however, wasn't the scene at Fellowship Tabernacle last Saturday when friends and family of Gordon Emmanuel Miller gathered to bid him farewell.

In contrast to the brooding skies and the rainy weather, the service was lively; full of jokes, laughter and singing.

There were multiple stories of 'Gem' -- as he was affectionately called because of the acronym of his names, as well as his personality and qualities -- as a boy getting into scrapes at school, as a young man wooing his lady love Diana, and as an adult who made fun of his age and girth.

There were tales of his generosity, his quick wit, his avid love for cricke and his appreciation for beauty.

Melody Miller talked about the way her brother-in-law would break into the chorus of the hymn All things bright and beautiful whenever he saw a beautiful woman.

"All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small. All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all. He gave us eyes to see them and lips that we might tell. How great is God Almighty who has made all things well', he would sing," she said.

It seemed each story was funnier than the last. One in particular which had the congregation in stitches was when Al Miller, pastor of Fellowship Tabernacle and head of the National Transformation Programme that operates out of the Office of the Prime Minister, talked of his brother's courtship of Diana.

"In the evenings when 'Gem' would get dressed and we would ask him where him going, he would say, 'I going to do a lecture in anatomy and physiology'," he said.

Diana, whom he later married, is a nurse.

"He was one of the sweetest persons you could ever meet," said Melody.

"He was kind to his own detriment. He would literally give away the shirt off his back," sister Melrose Rattray added.

"Gem did not fit the mould of the Miller clan. He was atypical. He was not as outspoken as the others," Melody said. She described him as reserved, very observant, a deep thinker, very aware and informed.

For Diana Miller, her late husband was her light and she left a love note on the back of the programme expressing as much.

"Gem, next to God, you were the light in my life. When the world sees me glowing it will be a reminder of the fire that still burns," she said.

The couple's only child, Fiona, left a love note too, only hers was more telling.

"Daddy, you were supposed to walk me down the aisle. My children were supposed to sit on your lap, but now you're gone... Thank you for the fact that I knew you and you were an active part of my life. So may others have never had that privilege. My husband will know you and so will my children because I will always be a reflection of you."

Gem was the fourth of seven children for his parents. He was named after the district in Red Hills, St Andrew, where he was born on March 28, 1943. He passed on July 7, 2010, leaving wife Diana, daughter Fiona, brothers Frank, George and Al, and sisters Pam and Melrose.