Alicia Sutherland
Sunday, January 26, 2014
AT only 39 years old, illness took aesthetician Sheryl Althea Whyte away from her family.
While the pain of her loss was evident and tears flowed freely at the service of thanksgiving for her life on Saturday, January 11, her family has come to terms with the realisation that her untimely passing does not quite mean that her life was cut short.
“I finished early, I did it my way, and then God had his way,” said Roxanna Harriott as she read the eulogy for her cousin affectionately known as Tracey.
Born August 9, 1974 Harriott told the gathering Whyte received her education at the Christiana Moravian Primary school, Edwin Allen Comprehensive High and a number of other institutions that supported her interests.
She is remembered as free-spirited with a love for her family, her only child John-Ross Greaves, and a passion for fashion.
In a tribute done by Yanique Hall-Harriott, on behalf of family members overseas, Whyte is described as a delicate flower.
“Externally she personified immense strength. However, her life’s anthem was built on songs of tenderness. She was blessed with physical beauty, equally impressive were the elements of her character,” she said.
“Tracey will give her everything,” said Linnette Campbell of the House of Styles clothing store where the deceased spent a period of her working life.
Whyte’s aunt, Gladys Harriott, said that she was at her 75th birthday party in December and she did not know that she would have attended Whyte’s father’s funeral, her mother’s funeral and now her funeral.
Family members and friends believe that one of the most significant achievements for her was accepting the lord and symbolising it through baptism at the Refuge Temple Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic Faith in George Reid, Manchester, before she passed on.
“Death doesn’t look at the colour of your skin; it doesn’t look at how pretty you are or how handsome you look…. Don’t wait on your friends to come (to the Lord), let your friends follow you,” one church member told the congregation.
General secretary of the Jamaica Council of Churches and Whyte’s cousin Reverend Gary Harriott prayed for the family.
Among the loved ones she left behind are her siblings Jamaica Observer photographer Gregory Bennett, Joy Whyte and Oneil Whyte.
Whyte was interred at the Oaklawn Memorial Gardens.
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I finished early — A delicate flower gone at 39
