Just as he had led her pantomime orchestra many times over, Calvin “Bubbles” Cameron sounded his ‘last station’ for author, journalist, playwright and radio talk show host Barbara Joy Gloudon during a Mass of Resurrection at St Margaret’s Anglican Church in St Andrew on Thursday.

The trombonist played a medley which included the American spiritual Blessed Assurance and a ska classic as he paid tribute to the stalwart of the theatre community and, indeed, the nation.

The musical homage to Gloudon was one of the many which came in the form of the spoken word, music, song and dance, a true reflection of her wide and diverse paths of interest.

Gloudon is credited with writing or contributing to more than 40 national pantomimes, and therefore it was not surprising that the tributes commenced with the pantomime company and Cari-Folk Singers remembering her in song.

The pantomime orchestra, which included Grub Cooper and master drummer Calvin Mitchell, also performed in her memory.

The National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC) was also represented. Faith Livingstone and Christine Walters of the NDTC Singers performed Pie Jesu, while the pair of artistic director Marlon Simms and ballet mistress Kerry-Ann Henry performed the pas de deux Ave Verum from Bert Rose’s work Edna M.

The arts is no stranger to Gloudon and her family. Her sister Lorna Goodison-Chamberlain, a National Poet Laureate, paid tribute in poetry and personal reflection of her big sister, whom the family affectionately called Babs. Goodison Chamberlain told the congregation that she later learned that Bab, in Arabic, means gate. She shared that Gloudon was their gateway to a world of experiences.

“She was our Babs. You can know how far back anybody goes back with Barbara if they called her Babs. She was indeed our gate and gateway. She became our gate at home in the Goodison household where she was the first-born child. There was never a child born into this world who was more loved and more revered than Barbara Joy. She was our Babs, she was our gate, she was our gateway. And because she was our gateway she got good practice and grounding at home, and I believe she became the gate and gateway for many people in Jamaica and people in the wider world, many of whom we will never see in this lifetime but whose lives she touched in extraordinary ways,” said Goodison-Chamberlain.

In reflecting on her sister’s final years as illness took over her body, Goodison-Chamberlain noted that it was a painful thing to behold.

“My sister lost quite a lot — her physical gave up on her in the later years. It was painful to watch the beautiful, gorgeous, energetic Barbara. But I know personally that she was able to access something in those last days when she was weak, when the dementia was taking its toll and the blindness was taking its toll, I saw her turn to a source of light,” she said.

“We all passed through the gateway that was Babs. Nobody in Jamaica is untouched by the life of this extraordinary woman. I’m glad for you that you knew Barbara, I’m glad that you knew Mrs Gloudon, but we knew our Babs and she was beloved. We celebrate her life today, but we mourn her passing because nobody was ever quite like her… people might come close, but there was just one Barbara and there’s never going to be another one, so let’s just treasure our memories of her,” she said.