When 11 year-old Sheriffa Hammond played a tape of Luther Vandross' Dance With My Father during the thanksgiving mass for her dad, Keith, yesterday, it seemed as if everyone in the hall at St Richard's Church in Kingston was crying.

A picture of the late Captain Dr Keith Hammond took the place usually reserved for a casket during yesterday's thanksgiving mass to mark his passing. Hammond died after his plane crashed in St Mary on April 4. His body has not been recovered.

The words of the song reinforced what they all knew only too well - she would never be able to dance with her father again, not in this lifetime. During the service, her mother, Dawn, comforted the crying child, cradling her to her bosom.

But there were moments of bittersweet laughter, too, as relatives and friends - and even some who barely knew the dentist, army captain and trainee pilot - shared their memories of him. One close friend spoke of his "belly laugh", so deep that it seemed to come from the depths of his soul.

Hammond's plane went down near Robin's Bay, St Mary, on April 4 as he tried to complete the final leg of a solo flight that would have made him a pilot.

"If you didn't hear Keith, he was either not around or he was shooting... those were the only times he was quiet," said Mike Costa, a life member of the Jamaica Rifle Association (JRA).
Hammond was JRA president at the time of his death.

He represented Jamaica in the men's 50m Rifle Prone at the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and had dreamt of duplicating that effort at the Olympic level.

But that seemed to be just one of only a few things that Hammond did not get around to doing before his plane went down. His friends remembered him as a man who had accomplished, in one lifetime, what others would need two to do. He died while pursuing one of his passions - flying.

The church and the adjoining tent were packed with those who had come to say goodbye. Among them was the president of the Jamaica Dental Association, Winston Newell, who said Hammond's patients referred to him as the 'payless dentist' because of his penchant for treating even those who were unable to pay.

Staff members from Hammond's dental practice struggled through tears to finish an emotional delivery of the song Gone Too Soon. As the congregation sniffled, they could barely get through the final lines: Like A Sunset/Dying With The Rising Of The Moon/Gone Too Soon.

At the front of the room, in the spot usually reserved for a casket, was a photograph of Hammond. His body has not been recovered since his single-engine Cessna aircraft went missing off the coast of Strawberry Fields. After days of combing the area, a few pieces of the small aircraft were finally found.

Among the mourners, who were encouraged to wear bright colours yesterday, were representatives from the Jamaica Defence Force, the Jamaica Rifle Association and the Jamaica Dental Association. Also in attendance was Minister of Tourism Aloun N'dombet Assamba.

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