By: Claude Mills
Well known media personality Christine Hewitt will be buried on July 16th at a venue which is yet to be decided. The funeral services will be handled by celebrity mortician Tommy Thompson of Brite Lite Funeral Services.
"Everything must be like how Christine is, she was joyful, she didn't want anyone to mourn over her, so basically, we will be doing something nice, pretty that matches her personality. There is going to be a big ni-nite to celebrate her life, where people can come and express themselves. The ni-nite ah keep at 58-and-a half Mannings Hill Road, same place that held her father's ni-nite. We did her father's funeral as well," Tommy Thompson, chief executive officer of Brite Lite Funeral Services, told YardFlex.Com.
Hewitt, who is survived by her daughter, Tricia, three brothers, and six sisters, will be interred at Dovecot.
"The body was badly burnt, but her request was that she not be cremated so we have the mammoth task of preparing the body for burial. As you can well imagine, it will not be an open casket funeral, with a lot of portraits, projection screen images, lots of photos of her in her eventful life. It's going to be a 'semi-state' kind of funeral because she was close to heads of government. We are still trying to locate the best available venue to accommodate the thousands that are expected to be in attendance."
Hewitt was killed by unknown attackers last Thursday. Her charred remains were discovered in a Hiace minibus in the Riversdale, St. Catherine area.
Thompson said he is still upset over Christine's death because she was a close personal friend.
"I saw her a couple of days before her death, and we spoke at length...deep down, this is one funeral I didn't want to do, because it has an emotional side to it, but I have to do my job, it hard to lose a close friend...Christine is someone that once you hear her voice, mi have to laugh. We ah go all out on her funeral, trust me."
It was Brite Lite's impressive oversight of arrangements for the funeral of slain community leader Willie Haggart in May 2001, at the National Arena, that really put the fledgling funeral home on the map. He has buried such well-known figures as Donovan 'Bulbie' Bennett, businessman Eugene 'Fat Eye' Parkinson, Oliver "Bubba" Smith, Andrew 'Bunman' Hope and entertainment dancehall icon Gerald 'Bogle' Levy.

