IT'S difficult to forget the good-natured insistent man who made it patently clear which preparatory school all Virtue children should attend.

It's hard also to remember a time when the late Patrick Virtue wasn't smiling. Even in death he smiled broadly at everyone from the large photograph occupying centre stage in the St Andrew parish Church, Saturday, February 20th.

The unexpected, but welcomed heavy Saturday afternoon showers outside, did not affect the praises that reigned inside, in remembrance of the man with the charming, alarming and disarming smile.

His friends and family remembered that most about the late footballer, pan musician, dancer, family man and friend who died February 11, months away from his 62nd birthday.

The Jamaica College fraternity, headed by Prime Minister Bruce Golding, came out in numbers and said nice things about a man who loved his school, and was truly bound by the ends of his school tie -- where 'true blue' meant bonds, only broken in death.

His death left a hole in the hearts of his sons André, Darren and Dwayne, his wife Valerie, his brother Christopher, nieces and nephews, his friends and the JC community. His boyhood friend, Reverend Dr Robert Thompson, told them it was 'ok' to mourn.

Ian Forbes, representing the JC community, said his death was a "profound loss of one of (JC's) most loyal and committed sons ... who took on the thankless yet most productive path of identifying, molding and nurturing young sporting talent..." always congisant of his school motto, Fervet Opus In Campis -- work is burning in the fields.

"He was precise and painstaking in his efforts and would spare no effort to track down and bring back into the fold any boy who had fallen by the wayside. It was not unusual to see him in some secluded alley reasoning with such a boy who at maybe 15 years thought he had had enough of the rigid discipline that JC was all about, and which Patrick was an enforcer..." Forbes said also said.

"...Patrick gave it all to JC, the school he attended from 1961 to 1966..." said Forbes.

In recognition of his efforts, the Jamaica College sports development committee will establish the Patrick Virtue Scholarship beginning September 2010, to a financially challenged Jamaica College footballer who display a positive attitude towards the academics.

Patrick did not check his pockets before opening his heart to "provide an extra pair of football boots, a shin guard, shorts, jersey to the boy who could not afford one, or had that little extra talent and positive attitude..." and his humility was not lost on André, the eldest of three sons, who remembered his kindness.

"Daddy ... was the one with the big smile and warm heart ... who was a life partner to mommy from the time he won her over at 12- years-old with that signature charm and great big smile ..." he said, fighting back tears but supported by Darren.

"He was so many things to so many people but to us he was simply "pops", "daddy", "brads" and "bradrick". He was a man who taught us very early in life, more in action than in words, that good friends was better than pocket money ... Our father was happiest when he was around his friends," he recalled.

"Daddy did not have a lot of money. He did not have flashy clothes. He did not think of material things, and in my own life as well as in Darren and Dwayne, we have seen that in his friends, and they have also taught us of living a life that is committed to your friends and not be concerned about material things..." he said.

But it was Dr Lucien Jones, who brought it all together.

Journeying to their boyhood days, carousing at each other's parents homes, the games they played, their mishaps and mischiefs, their prowess and pitfalls, but most of all the friendships of boyhood days, which not even death could sever.

Jones, described Patrick as possessing the well-known Virtue tradition of little patience with persons who talked rubbish.

Had he got his chance he may well have had a perfect description for many public servants, and some in the private sector too, but he lived a life of action, speaking louder than idle chatter.

Reverend Dr Thompson in delivering the homily said death creates a hole in the hearts of families when their loved ones die.

He told them they should not be afraid to mourn, even while they also try to understand why bad things happen to good people.

"...When a love one dies a part of us die too; when a spouse of over 30-years dies, a part of you die too; life isn't the same without dad anymore; the plans he made are rendered obsolete; more than that, they wonder how we will go on without the one in whom so much of our lives found their identity and meaning..." Reverend Thompson said.

He told Valerie, André, Darren, Dwayne and other members of his family that God would send them a comforter to console, and help them continue living.

André Virtue, carried his dad's cremated remains from the church.

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