PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad--The final resting place of late Prime Minister Patrick Manning could be a crypt, if his family’s wish is granted.
The first of its kind request has been made to the Holy Trinity Cathedral by the relatives of the late leader who died last Saturday, a day after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia – a rare form of blood and bone marrow cancer.
Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs, Stuart Young made the disclosure yesterday at a post-Cabinet media briefing.
“The Government is in conversation with the Anglican Church, because the family had requested that Mr. Manning’s body find its final resting place at the Cathedral and, so far, it seems that we will be proceeding along those grounds but that will take some preparation,” he said.
“It is private grounds so it will be a decision for the Anglican Church.”
The Trinidad Express newspaper quoted Anglican Bishop Reverend Claude Berkley as saying the request was “a new challenge.”
“We have not had any requests for entombment at the Holy Trinity Cathedral prior to this,” he said.
The Newsday newspaper has reported that the other alternative being considered is for Manning’s body to be placed in a crypt beneath the chapel at Belgrove’s Funeral Home in Tacarigua, a town in the East-West Corridor of the twin-island republic.
Wherever is eventually chosen as Manning’s final resting place, the final committal will follow a private service after his state funeral at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port of Spain on July 9.
Young told the media that while the logistics of the funeral service are being worked out, the late leader’s wife, Hazel Manning, made it clear she did not want it to be “a stretched out service”.
Several Caribbean Community Caricom dignitaries are expected to attend the funeral. ~ Caribbean360 ~
