MANDEVILLE, Manchester – The mass of resurrection for the lives of Richard and Julia Lyn was done their way – simple. There was an early indicator of that as saxophonist Seymour Heron opened the service playing My Way, after the moderator announced that it was “a song that ‘Dicky’ himself requested”.

So, the pronouncement of Father Thomas Brislin, who gave the sermon at the St Paul of the Cross Catholic Cathedral in Mandeville yesterday, that the entire service was being executed in the fashion of the late couple, was no surprise.

“That’s the kind of people they were – no put on, no ostentation, simple, good, hardworking people,” Brislin said.

The Lyns were abducted and robbed on December 10, 2006 and their remains were found three weeks later in the Martin’s Hill dump in Manchester. Three people have since been charged in connection with their disappearance, robbery and possible murder.

Yesterday, the custos of Manchester, Gilbert Allen, longtime friend of the Lyns, who gave a remembrance, described as heartless the people responsible for the Lyns’ deaths and said the killers have brought “sorrow and shame to our entire community”.

“Now, more than ever before, our country is faced with the threat of lawlessness, cruelty and mayhem,” said Allen. “May we as citizens…pool our strengths and resources in a bold crusade against the forces of evil.”

This being a celebration of the lives of people who were victims of crime, the subject could not be ignored, and even received applause, the only such occurrence in the two-hour long mass, when the Most Reverend Charles DuFour, apostolic administrator for the Catholic Diocese of Mandeville, said his piece.

“The security forces alone cannot clear up crime and violence in Jamaica,” DuFour said, and appealed to Jamaicans to maintain their anonymity when they call in tips to Crime Stop or Kingfish.

“I exalt all well-thinking Jamaicans to assist the security forces in cleaning up Jamaica… let’s work to bring an end to the this nonsense, this rubbish in Jamaica,” DuFour said.

The condemnation of crime aside, the mass was a fairly quiet reflection on the lives of two people who the custos called good citizens.

“They lived outside the borders of narrow ethnocentricity and made our motto a reality – out of many, we are indeed, one people,” Allen said.

In a second remembrance, the late couple’s friend, Conrad Moo-Pen, told how their unexpected departure had left family and friends saying a series of ‘remember whens’.

“It’s so easy now to think that we could be here for mass and Dicky and Julie are sliding into the pew next to you, knowing that you were going to have a chat afterwards.”

Moo-Pen and Allen told of the yellow pouii tree that Richard had planted on the golf course where he played. “The first time a branch broke off it, Dicky cried,” Moo-Pen said.

Marcia Tai-Chun gave a third remembrance, which she said was specially for Julia from her friends. Tai-Chun called Julia “a woman of service”, and a “gentle woman”, much like the Biblical Mary, to whom Julia was dedicated. A chuckle swept the congregation when Tai-Chun told how Julia always packed her “Dicky bag” full of goodies for her husband from functions.

The remains of the couple, who would have celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary February 7, were cremated.