Most readers will probably regard Danielle Jones-Cox’s praise of her uncle, Carlton Daley, as an exaggeration. However, the people who filled Redeemer Moravian Church at the intersection of North and Duke streets in downtown Kingston last Thursday morning to pay tribute to Daley nodded when she described him as “one in 7.7 billion; the only man like him to walk this Earth”.

Everyone who knew Daley attested to his qualities as an exemplary human being. In fact, that was the general theme coming from the tributes delivered at the thanksgiving service for the life of the man who, as the printed funeral programme pointed out, “came into this world on Monday, June 12, 1933 and departed 88 years later on Thursday, April 12, 2022”.

“He was a genuine person, with a warm personality. He treated everyone he encountered, however brief, with kindness and respect. For uncle, there was good in everyone,” Jones-Cox said in her tribute.

“Carlton, my uncle Carley, lived a full life. He lived… to inspire us all. My uncle was very accomplished, yet he was humble; he acquired much, yet he was so kind and generous; he was easy to love and he loved you just as hard,” she said.

Jones-Cox, whose aunt, Joyetta Alveranga, got married to Daley in 1994, noted that the couple became so inseparable that, “especially in the years following their retirement, if aunty was seen without uncle she most certainly would be quizzed on where was her handbag”.

She also remembered her uncle as a gentleman who taught the “boys, now men, in our family what it meant to be a man”.

Additionally, “he showed us girls how we should be treated. Even as my cousins would agree with me that we sometimes strayed from his teachings, we never forgot them”.

Jones-Cox also remembered her uncle as a man devoted to his family, taking his nieces and nephews to prep school parties, buying ice cream, pastry, and other treats for the entire school, being present at prize giving ceremonies and graduations.

“I can’t recall a time in my life that he was not there. He took my mommy home from the hospital when I was born, he was godfather at my christening, he came to prize giving in prep school, prize giving and honour roll ceremonies in high school, he was there to watch my victory speech when I became head girl, he was at graduation for the 11th and 12th grade and for undergrad and graduate programmes — a few of these occasions arriving back to the island the very day of the graduation and attending without aunty as she was too tired,” Jones-Cox related.

“He was there when I got my first job and he held my hand as he walked me down the aisle at my wedding — something he did for my sister too. For every milestone he was always by my side. It is my uncle who was my constant father figure, my guiding light,” she added.

“He also listened to you keenly whenever you shared a challenge you needed his help with. This is one of the many ways he showed you that you were important to him, that he valued the relationship he had with you. Whether he had a big job or was dealing with a very important corporate client, if you needed him, he was there. He was never too busy for you. I guess he must have known how much I needed him and looked to him as my father figure. My mom recalls a day when he had a very important meeting with the executives at Red Stripe and asked them to postpone the meeting time, to which they protested. She recalled his response to them was, ‘My god-daughter has her prize giving at school today and she expects to see me in the audience.’ Needless to say, the meeting got postponed. My mother said she never forgot this and recalled crying when she heard him say this,” Jones-Cox shared.

“How he managed to be there for so many of us, to take on the responsibility of being a father figure to so many, and to be brother, father, and granddad to his own relatives was a feat that I’m not sure many could handle. But that was uncle. There was no task too great for him to undertake. If he gave you his word, he would do it. Much of this fortitude, I believe, came from his unwavering faith in God,” she said.

Giving an example of that faith, Jones-Cox recalled an occasion when Daley and his wife were experiencing a period of financial difficulty, and on their way to church one Sunday morning noticed that the fuel gauge in their car indicated empty.

The couple had decided to purchase gasoline on their way back home. However, on leaving church, Daley told his wife that he had given away the $5,000 that they had planned to use to purchase gas to a church sister who desperately needed to refill her prescription.

“My aunty was very concerned that they would not make it home that afternoon, but my uncle, ever steadfast and firm in his belief, told her that those with faith die in the Lord. So strong was his belief that whatever gas remained in that tank not only took them home but carried them for another half day until they were able to get to the bank for money. I’m not sure how many of us here today would take that chance, but for uncle, nothing was by chance, and he knew that God would always provide,” Jones-Cox said.

Retired Deputy Commissioner of Police Keton Morgan remembered his boyhood friend as a kind and caring individual who would often take him to his home on school days for lunch, given that he had none.

Morgan regaled the congregation with hilarious adventures he shared with Daley during their time at Patrick Town Elementary School in Manchester and elicited sustained laughter when he declared, “Carlton could not sing. He was tone-deaf. When the rest of us were singing in the key of C, Carlton alone was singing in the key of G.”

He also recalled that Daley — who, when he became an adult founded and operated Daley’s Motor Centre on Spanish Town Road in St Andrew — was fascinated by motor vehicles as a boy. In fact, he recalled that Daley’s love for motor vehicles had led him to work at United Motors before he started his own business.

Daley’s eldest son, Carlton Daley Jr, recalled that his father was a stickler for education and played a sustained positive role in the lives of his family members.

“He was always present. Not present just as a parent, but in all aspects of his family’s life,” he said.

Daley’s daughter, Shirley, shared her admiration of her father “seen through the prism of family”.

“My father loved and cared for his family, and others. For the last 20 years and more, all my siblings and his siblings have been living abroad, and at least once, during our many conversations he would ask, ‘Yuh hear from them other ones. Yu hear from anybody?’ He just needed to know that everybody was okay, no matter how far away they were living,” she shared.

“I call him a provider par excellence,” she added as she recalled how Daley would, each week, buy products from a number of bakeries and deliver to the homes of each family member.

Similar stories of Daley’s strong Christian faith, generosity, and attention to family, including the many people who regarded him as a father and who gave him the title ‘Sir’, were shared throughout the service by his brother Dalbert, granddaughter Anna-Bo Emmanuel, and church brother Linden Neil.

Thursday’s service was the first of two. The second was held at Patrick Town Moravian Church at Green Pond, Manchester, on Saturday morning, after which his body was interred in the church cemetery.