PORT ANTONIO, Portland – Sandra Lyn Andrea Minott, who succumbed to cancer at the age of 53, was remembered and hailed as a woman of God and committed Christian, during a thanksgiving service at the Open Bible church on September 25.

Tributes in the forms of the spoken word and music were offered by her loved ones on a day when Minott’s contribution to a better world were celebrated.

Jacqueline Hill, who offered a tribute on behalf of the Boundbrook Basic School where Minott was the Parent-Teachers’ Association president, remembered her for “playing an integral role in the school’s development and welfare”.

Hill was later joined by Marvette Baxter and Isha Dixon and the trio recited the poem Time Heals.

Minott’s good friend Harvey Gordon, the pastor of Hope Bay Gospel Chapel and principal of Charles Town Primary School, described her as a “goodly treasure”.

“As the Bible speaks of finding a good treasure and speaks of he who finds a wife finds a good thing, and so forth, Dr Minott found a goodly treasure and the children blessed with a goodly mother. I found her to be a gentle giantess; she was so gentle, humble, quiet and easy going. She was the president of Norwich Primary PTA and she was the force behind that school. She was a pleasant soul; a passionate person, passionate about saving souls, and when it comes to young people she was there to counsel them, to guide them, to encourage them, to mould them in the things of God. She was not one to go around with a loud speaker, but in the quietness and in the background she was a passionate person for souls. She was a team player and she would always join us at Hope Bay when we have Vacation Bible School and prepared the materials and be very involved. She was one of us not as a boss but a team player. Her memory remains with us. May her soul rest in peace” he said.

Verna Pearce from Every Fish Gospel Hall described Minott as a soft-spoken person who believed in giving more than receiving, with a passion for souls and very supportive. She ended her remembrance with the hymn Jesus Leads Me Beside The Still Waters.

Norwich Primary school songster Suzette Blake sang Marvellous Grace Medley, to great applause. Board chair Elith Simpson hailed her as a “godly, devoted wife, mother, friend, social worker, a geologist with a special love for children.”

She gave her credit for the school’s success in the grade four literacy test as she took the time out to find parents and got children and teachersd prepared.

“She spent a long time, especially with the slower ones, getting them ready for the test. She would always go the extra mile and was one you could call on at any time as long as it had anything to do with the Norwich Primary School.”

“Brownies was also her passion and when they were going out she made sure they were satisfied. She worked tirelessly in getting the two grade-one classrooms and went the extra mile tirelessly to get any project she planned to be completed. Sandra Minott can be described as a rose, a rose without a thorn. She stood straight and tall, a rose with a fragrance there could be no other; a precious rose, a perfect rose Sandra was the most precious of all, a rose that survived the worst kind of weather and yet the most delicate ever. The beauty is still there; it never dies. It breaks our heart to lose you, but you did not go alone for part of Norwich Primary went with you” she said.

Minott had joined the Norwich family in 2009 as vice-chair of the school board and later president of the PTA.