Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Ba­by Ak­ilon Glas­gow lived for on­ly three days, but the im­pact of his short life and the joy he brought to his fam­i­ly was re­mem­bered at his fu­ner­al ser­vice on Fri­day.Nekeisha Hen­ry, who had giv­en birth to him just sev­en days ear­li­er, was in­con­solable as she sat near the tiny white cof­fin dur­ing the ser­vice at the Elite Fu­ner­al Home, New­lands, Point Fortin.

When she was asked by the in­fant's fa­ther, Ak­il Glas­gow, if she want­ed to see the ba­by one last time, she moaned loud­ly and cov­ered her face with her hands. Glas­gow then walked over to the cof­fin, lov­ing­ly touched the ba­by's face and held his tiny hands be­fore clos­ing the cof­fin."This is a pre­cious lit­tle gem in this box," Hen­ry's cousin Jade Bowen said be­fore she called on mourn­ers to sing the hymn, Je­sus Loves the Lit­tle Chil­dren.

Bowen urged Hen­ry and Glas­gow to draw their strength from Je­sus Christ and help each oth­er through their time of sor­row."We want to give God thanks for the life of ba­by Ak­ilon, short as it may be. God does not make mis­takes. He knows the be­gin­ning to the end. What­ev­er He does He knows the rea­son. When you put your trust in God, put your full trust and con­fi­dence in God and He will bless you with some­thing bet­ter, some­thing ad­di­tion­al," Bowen said.

Hen­ry's cousin, Rev­erend Glenn Forde, strug­gled to keep his com­po­sure as he de­liv­ered the ser­mon. He said the ba­by's death was a mys­tery and he urged the griev­ing par­ents to re­mem­ber that God is al­ways in con­trol and had rea­sons for tak­ing the ba­by af­ter a short time on earth."God is a mys­te­ri­ous God. We do not un­der­stand what re­al­ly did hap­pen, but he gives us hope and life ever last­ing," Forde said."He says to us to­day, 'I will nev­er leave you, I will nev­er for­sake you. I am your com­forter."

Fol­low­ing the ser­vice lit­tle Ak­ilon was laid to rest at the Point Fortin pub­lic ceme­tery.