Claudette Verona McLeish, the 63-year-old retired financial controller for a number of Appliance Traders Limited’s (ATL) related companies, including the Jamaica Observer, was buried yesterday at Meadowrest Memorial Gardens, Green Acres, St Catherine.

The burial followed a three-hour-long thanksgiving service at the Faith Cathedral Deliverance Centre, 104 Waltham Park Road, where she had served as a member and financial adviser to the church group. She was baptised on July 13, 1978.

McLeish, who was born in rural St Elizabeth, attended St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) after a lack of financial ability caused her to turn down earlier opportunities to enter the more affluent Hampton and Holmwood Technical High schools.

She left behind a family of five brothers and four sisters, as well as loyal church brethren and co-workers, who packed the church to bid her their farewell with inspirational words, music and dance.

In a moving tribute to her life and service to the church, Bishop Herro Blair compared her to Abel, biblical son of Adam and Eve, for serving beyond the normal call of duty.

Using Hebrew 11, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” as the basis of his sermon. He said that Abel “believed in and loved the Lord”.

Blair emphasised that Abel understood the importance of worship, and that the occasional sacrifice was not enough and took God seriously and abided by his instructions.

“Claudette did that with her life, too, until her illness prevented her from doing so,” he noted. She died of cancer-related complications on Friday, July 13.

Blair said that when the church faced enormous difficulties in meeting its financial obligations she challenged the congregation to make greater sacrifices.

“She started giving one month’s salary every year to the church…. Nobody asked her to do it. She did it because she was impressed with the definition of sacrifice and, as a result of that, God blessed her more abundantly, ” Blair said.

He said that God had rewarded her as, unlike nine out of 10 persons who die, she recovered from a near-death situation just eight weeks before she eventually took her final breath.

He said that God had allowed her the eight weeks “to put things right”.

“Eight weeks to put things right. Eight weeks to say, ‘It’s alright with my soul.’ What a God! She carried her God well, now she is gone to be with him,” Blair remarked.

He said that she was “big and broad” within the church and the Deliverance Evangelistic Association Inc.

In addition to providing helpful advice to the church, McLeish also took charge of its accounting and financial administration, including the production of its annual audited accounts, “without asking for payment”.

Blair said that there was one thing missing from their 40-year relationship, and it was that, despite her sacrifices and contribution to the success of the church, she never applied to become a minster and, on the other hand, the church never offered the position to her.

Family friend Marie Stewart Lewin, in the eulogy, noted that “Miss Mac”, as she was familiarly known at work, struggled as a child growing up in a family of 11 children with their parents in rural Jamaica.

She said that her determination to achieve a better life eventually led her to Kingston, where she joined ATL’s Caribrake Limited’s accounts department, swiftly moving up the group ladder to become financial controller at Gorstew Limited, Air Jamaica Limited, Appliance Traders Limited, and the most recently established FYAH 105 FM.

Jamaica Observer’s Executive Editor – Publications Vernon Davidson also paid tribute to her accounting and financial skills, as well as her deep love for football, especially English Premier League team Liverpool, and her alma mater STETHS.

He was supported by Associate Editor – Opinion Miguel A Thomas, who sang the hymn Until Then in tribute.

Several other tributes were also read on behalf of the staff of the various ATL companies with which she was associated.

An offering was also taken in support of the family’s decision to establish The Claudette McLeish Foundation, which Lewin said would support children in need of educational support.

ATL Group Chairman Gordon “Butch” Stewart, who is overseas on business, earlier expressed his deep sorrow at her passing, saying he would miss her terribly and remembered her sterling contribution to the group’s success.