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Travis Saunders was a very determined and promising individual

January 31, 2010

Travis Saunders' life was snuffed out too soon and the sombre thanksgiving service for his life at the Power of Faith Ministries in Portmore, St Catherine, was more than enough to prove it.

Relatives, including several of his younger siblings, cried openly as they described the promising future the former Jamaica Defence Force Private could have lead.

Saunders, who was only 22-years-old, was found dead near a mudlake in Ewarton in St Catherine, three months after he went missing from his home, also in St Catherine, on February 11, last year.

His badly decomposed body was handed over to his relatives about two weeks ago, when Government pathologists, after a series of tests, finally confirmed it was his.

The cause of his death is still unknown, however.

On Saturday, Wails of grief echoed from the congregation as mourners, despite a request for them to stay strong from Saunders' mother Ann-Marie, wept openly.

Saunders' niece, Beyonka Chong, who was not more than fourteen years old, was one such example. She had to be consoled and removed from the podium by a relative less than a minute after she began to read the second bible lesson.

"I told you that I don't want you to come here and cry you know, you have to stay here strong for me," Ann-Marie said before commencing the song 'I must tell Jesus'.

"When Travis went missing I went to pick up my son and they told me that he was gone. But I felt a feeling deep in my abdomen and I said that was not true," she said.

"If only I had gone inside to look then maybe I would know what had really happened to him. But I didn't, so I don't know. Only God knows," she said, fighting back tears.

While reading her son's eulogy, Saunders' shared several stories of him growing up. One of the stories told of his decision to get baptised several years ago.

"One night they had baptism here at church and among the members I saw my son," she said, smiling. He didn't tell me he was going to baptise but he said 'mommy sometimes you need to be surprised. That was a good day," she said.

She also reflected on the day he decided to go into the army, saying despite her pleas for him not to, he enlisted anyway, a sign of his determination.

"He has the potential to go far because he was very determined, even to join the army. He just loved the army and there would have been nothing to stop him from going up the ranks. Maybe he would be helping in Haiti right now," she said.

Corey Robinson

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Saunders

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