ST JAMES, Jamaica – Red Cap porters based at the Sangster International Airport are still trying to come to grips with the passing of their colleague, the flamboyant 58-year-old Paul Nelson, who last Monday died in the Kingston Public Hospital two weeks after sustaining injuries in a motor vehicle accident on the Spring Garden main road in St James.

Nelson, called Bald Head, Santa Claus and Lawyer, was People’s National Party’s (PNP) councillor caretaker for the Spring Garden Division in the St James West Central constituency.

President of the Sangster International Airport-based Montego Bay Red Cap Porters Association, Hopeton Burnett, told Observer Online that members of the association had to receive grief counselling upon learning of Nelson’s passing.

“It’s really a sad moment for us. Losing someone is always a sad moment. A lot of people take it real hard. We even have to bring in grief counsellors to help with the mourning and all of that,” Burnett said.

He recounted that Nelson was a jovial Red Cap porter who was popular with the passengers.

“Most people call him Santa Claus, he is always comedic, always giving the passengers the experience they would want to have; always jovial, dancing sometimes for the visitors. He was that type of person and he’s well known,”Burnett said.

After he was involved in a motor vehicle accident Nelson was transferred from the Cornwall Regional Hospital to the Kingston Public Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries last Monday.

In 2019, members of the Montego Bay Red Cap Porters Association were plunged into mourning following the passing of one of their members, 55-year-old Romeal Wilson who was mowed down by a motorcycle on the road across from his house in Bounty Hall, Trelawny, where a wake for his mother was taking place.

READ: Red cap porter killed by bike while at wake for his mom

-Horace Hines