THE adjectives faithful, committed, loving, kind, and caring seemed to have been coined specifically for Princess Riley Lewis.

And for the many who knew her — and have been touched by this graceful giant of a woman and committed Christian — this list of glowing adjectives is by no means an exhaustive one.

A thanksgiving service was held at Boulevard Baptist Church on Friday to celebrate Lewis’ life. Even the casual attendee would readily admit to feeling a sense of loss at the end of the ceremony.

At the same time though, comfort could be taken from the fact that this woman lived a full life and had touched countless others.

“We believe that she will hear, ‘Well done — well done good and faithful servant…’,” said Rev Dr Devon Dick in his sermon, while he applied the well-known passage from Matthew 25:21 of the New Testament to Lewis.

Dick said that Lewis was a “good and faithful servant” who used her talent to benefit the church, her family and the nation.

He also encouraged congregants to use Lewis’s life as an example as a good and faithful servant if they want to receive their commendation from God.

The 74-year-old Lewis passed away on December 14 after a battle with cancer. According to family members, the illness did not rob Lewis of her spirited nature.

In a tribute from the Boulevard Baptist Choir it was said that Lewis often spoke about one day reclaiming her spot on the choir.

“She bore her illness with crystal fortitude,” said choir director Joseph McIntyre. According to him, Lewis’s declining health didn’t prevent her from participating in choir activities.

Said Matthew McNaughton, one of Lewis’s grandsons: “She had a faith that was the foundation of her life. Grandma had such a strong belief in God. She knew nothing more than to rely on her faith.”

Aside from her strong faith, McNaughton said that Lewis was a “committed” family woman who “took the matter of her grandchildren seriously. I couldn’t ask for a better role model of how to live a Christian life like her,” he said while trying to hold back the tears.

In delivering the remembrance, Lewis’s cousin Carmen E Tipling said Lewis taught her daughters Ingrid and Olive values and ethics and instilled in them the need for a good education.

Lewis is said to have raised the children on her own following the death of their father. Lewis remarried in 2003 to AB Lewis who is now a reverend at Boulevard Baptist Church.

Tipling described Lewis as the voice of reason, “ready to assist”, “loving and kind”.

“She gave us love… she gave us hope,” Tipling said.