Mourners get a last look and take cellphone photographs of Lady Bustamante during a public viewing of her body at the offices of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, downtown Kingston, yesterday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

They came in droves to pay their respects. They wandered in off the streets of downtown Kingston, out of the heat and into the cool, dark entrance hall where the body of Lady Bustamante lay in calm repose.

They lingered, drawn by curiosity and a sense of gratitude to the woman who had toiled for more than 70 years to ease the poverty of the blue-collar working class and unemployed.

Barefoot street urchins, young mothers with toddlers, streetside vendors, wizened men and grandmothers in faded baseball caps pulling their grandchildren by the hand came to the offices of the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) to gaze upon the face of Sir Alexander Bustamante's 'right hand', moments after Minister of National Security Senator Dwight Nelson had departed with his entourage.

Brenda Taylor, now area supervisor for the BITU's western office, worked with Lady Bustamante at the trade union for 34 years, having joined in 1975. She described Lady B as "a champion of the working-class people", based on the fact that she always had a sympathetic attitude towards people.

"And I could remember her in the early years, coming into Montego Bay, to the Freeport, where you have the stevedores, and she would negotiate on behalf of the workers there. I'm an admirer of her, and I know she was a strong lady," Taylor said.

Down-to-earth

Looking at the profile of the woman she called a friend a few feet away in her coffin, Taylor recalled fond memories.

"I'm going to miss her on two levels - miss her on behalf of the workers, and miss her personally. She wasn't a sceptical person; no, she was that down-to-earth person, always had some words of encouragement to give to the workers and myself," Taylor said. "At one stage when I was pregnant, we were talking on the phone, and she told me to apply for my maternity leave, and then we cracked a joke and she said, 'What are you going to take to mind that baby? I'm going to give you five dollars more on your salary!'"

She added with a chuckle: "She loved children; she loved her workers. All her life, she was for people and children on a whole."

Taylor said western Jamaica would sadly miss her for her contributions, and her annual attendance at the celebration of Sir Alexander at his birthplace in Blenheim, Hanover.

grace-ann.black@gleanerjm.com

She loved children; she loved her workers. All her life, she was for people and children on a whole. - Taylor