Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

In a tear­ful farewell, the Siparia com­mu­ni­ty gath­ered to cel­e­brate the life of Quin­ton Gabriel, a stu­dent of Siparia West Sec­ondary who passed away af­ter bat­tling symp­toms of dengue fever.

The fu­ner­al took place at Boodoo's Fu­ner­al Home in Pe­nal on Sat­ur­day where fam­i­ly, friends, teach­ers, and class­mates came to ho­n­our him.

De­liv­er­ing the eu­lo­gy Gabriel's un­cle Ri­car­do Haynes re­called fond­ly his love of the out­doors. Haynes said Gabriel would of­ten ven­ture in­to the bush with­out in­form­ing his par­ents, seek­ing ad­ven­tures and im­mers­ing him­self in na­ture's beau­ty.

"Find peace in know­ing that Quin­ton has gone to a place where there is no pain," Haynes said as he sought to bring com­fort to Gabriel's par­ents Kei­th and Ayana Gabriel and oth­er mourn­ers.

A proud mem­ber of Fire Na­tion Drum Group, Haynes said Gabriel's fiery spir­it was ev­i­dent in every­thing he did.

"Quin­ton touched us in ways that words could scarce­ly cap­ture," Ri­car­do said. "He lived with pas­sion and pur­pose. He was a force of na­ture. His in­fec­tious laugh­ter and vi­brant per­son­al­i­ty will for­ev­er echo in the mem­o­ries of those who knew him," he added.

Known for be­ing out­spo­ken, Haynes re­called how Gabriel had "all the chats in the world," of­ten en­gag­ing in tiffs with his sis­ter, Des­tiny.