BY AINSWORTH MORRIS

Life Tributes writer

ON Saturday, July 5, family members, colleagues, friends and well-wishers gathered inside the Calvary Gospel Assembly in St Andrew to pay their final respects to 76-year-old retired civil servant, Rachel Louise Maragh, who was remembered as the epitome of kindness.

Maragh died at her home in Kingston on June 13 after suffering a brief illness.

The tributes to Maragh were touching. She was eulogised as a devout Christian, loving, selfless, caring, a woman whose second nature it was to forgive, and most of all, a true friend.

She was eulogised by Professor Franklin W Knight whose text was read by family friend Ruth Burke in Knight’s absence.

“Rachel was not only colour-blind in the good sense of that charged term, she was also class-blind. She was kin to the entire world, and the entire world was kin to her. She did not have a mean bone in her body. Nor did she have a bad thought about anything or anyone. She made choices that invariably reflected the supreme goodness of her character. So for her every cloud had a silver lining; every glass was half-full rather than half-empty, and in every individual their virtues outweighed their vices,” Burke read.

Dr Neville Holder, a Barbadian whose friendship with Maragh spanned 50 years from his student days at the University of the West Indies, Mona, described her as ‘phenomenal’.

“I am both honoured and humbled to pay tribute to Rachel. She was a phenomenal woman. Rachel was the embodiment of a true friend. She was always concerned about others and always put others above herself. She sacrificed for the good of others,” Holder said.

“From the time I met Rachel at the University of the West Indies, Mona, when I came to Jamaica to study from Barbados, she and her family accepted me. That was just the way they were and still are. They are accepting of people from all divides. I respected Rachel so much that I appointed her the godmother of one of my daughters, and eight months ago, that daughter named her daughter Rachel in her honour,” he added.

Maragh’s brother-in-law, Byron Henry, described her as a unique and selfless humanitarian.

“Rachel was affectionately called ‘Basha’ by her friends and family. Basha always considered others over herself. She was a record keeper who had a file on everyone. She was always willing and ready to help,” Henry said.

Her grandniece, Melissa Chin, paid a tearful tribute, while Ronald Chang used his harmonica to create a medley of songs, and Esther Thompson sang Only a Look at Jesus in tribute.

Maragh was buried beside her parents at the Dovecot Memorial Park in St Catherine.