OPPOSITION Leader Mark Golding had a few emotional moments as he delivered the remembrance at the service of thanksgiving for the life of his mother, Lady Patricia Golding, last Wednesday.

But even as his grief brought tears to the eyes of his family, friends and associates gathered in St Andrew Parish Church, and people watching the livestream, Golding soldiered on, providing what he described as an overview of his mother’s life and interests.

“She was an energetic, fun-loving, and caring person. She was a lady of consummate manners and high standards of behaviour at all times, from an era which has past and gone,” Golding said.

“She was also a kind person, providing financial assistance to persons in need at the [Mona] Rehab Centre, and going the extra mile to look after her staff at home, for which she earned their love and loyalty,” he added.

Lady Golding passed on September 27, 2024. She was 92.

At the service her “one son” spoke of the “unlimited and unconditional love” she provided to him and his sister, Anna.

His mother, he said, “was always there for us, genuinely interested in everything we did, and immensely proud of our achievements. She proved remarkably adaptable to embracing our major life choices, for which she is deserving of great respect. She was also a remarkable fighter when it came to holding onto life, surviving many ordeals during her final years through sheer force of her tremendous will to live”.

He shared the family history from the time his grandparents got married on May 5, 1930 at St George’s Church in Kingston, then subsequently moved to Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, where his grandfather, Logan Rhodes Levy, served as medical officer in charge of Savanna-la-Mar Hospital.

“Their union produced two children — my mother Alice Patricia (always known as Patricia or Pat), born on Christmas Eve in 1931, and David two years later. Uncle David went on to follow his father’s footsteps into medicine, becoming the senior consultant radiologist at KPH and head of radiology at Medical Associates Hospital,” Golding said.

“They moved to 7 Chelsea Avenue in Kingston where grandma began work as an executive assistant at a firm called Thompson Hankey. Pat and David were enrolled in St Andrew Prep School, and later went on to St Andrew High School for Girls and Wolmer’s Boys’ School, respectively, where they both excelled academically,” he said.

His mother went on to study for a degree in sociology at university in London, and after travelling in Spain for a year she returned to Jamaica in 1953 and became a pioneer as one of the first three women to be employed in an administrative category in the civil service.

Subsequently she was employed as an administrative cadet assigned to the Colonial Secretariat, then to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and the Central Planning Unit where she met then Premier Norman Washington Manley.

“I assume it was on July 28, 1959, as it was an election day. I know this because she told me, many years later, that he had asked her if she had already gone out to vote,” Golding shared.

He said that at some point in the 1950s she met Dr John Golding, then a young British orthopaedic surgeon who had come to Jamaica in 1953 on a one-year contract at the then University College of the West Indies and who had stayed here after getting immersed in two medical crises — the Kendall train crash and the polio epidemic.

“In 1961 they got married, and left immediately for a short honeymoon in Europe followed by a one-year sabbatical at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. They then returned to Jamaica to live at 9 College Common on the UWI Campus, and mommy left the civil service to help daddy expand the rehabilitation and commercial activities at the polio centre which he had started in response to the polio epidemic and which was evolving into a full-fledged rehabilitation centre — the only one in the English-speaking Caribbean,” Golding related.

“Mommy spent the rest of her working life at the Mona Rehabilitation Centre, and was critical to its institutional continuity after daddy died in March 1996. She retired gradually from the Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre — as it was renamed after his death in around 2013 — due to the onset of her deteriorating illness. I hope that one day she will be duly recognised for her public service, and especially her immense contribution to that institution and to the service of persons with disabilities in Jamaica,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion.

He also shared that Lady Patricia was active in the Girl Guide movement, played hockey and tennis for St Andrew High School for Girls, and continued playing tennis for most of her life. She also loved cricket, “and was a regular at Sabina Park to watch Test matches, remaining a loyal supporter of the West Indies even after it became an increasingly painful experience”.

She enjoyed games of all kinds and had a strongly competitive streak; was quick-witted and good at charades, a game which they often played at gatherings of family and close friends.

“Mummy was also musical. She played the guitar and piano, had a good signing voice, and loved dancing — especially with her one son,” said.

“I am grateful to her for teaching her children and grandchildren a full repertoire of folk songs from an early age, which we sang in unison in the car on trips to the country to help pass the time,” Golding said.

She also enjoyed nature and going for walks, and was an avid bird-watcher.

“At her home she ensured that there was always a bird bath in the garden, and when I had breakfast with her on Saturday mornings in the years after daddy died, she would point out the bright yellow Baltimore Orioles; the dazzling, petite Vervain hummingbirds; and a variety of warblers and quits that would pass through to have a drink or cool off,” he said.

“She and I enjoyed the special chemistry of mother and son. She had the softest hands, the gentlest voice, and the sweetest smile. Though she has not been herself for nearly a decade, even so her presence on this Earth felt like a source of protection and a connection to our past lives which we were so fortunate to have enjoyed together. Her passing has left a chasm which only time can refill,” Golding said.