Photos by Ian Allen/staff Photographer
LEFT: Carla Seaga, wife of former Prime Minister Edward Seaga, looks quite elegant for the event.
CENTRE: Jamaica Constabulary Force bearer party takes Lady B's coffin from the church.
RIGHT: Alfred Smart (left) reaches out to shake the hand of Delroy Chuck, speaker of the House of Representatives. Smart was among three persons who stood guard near Lady Bustamante's coffin in order to get handshakes from dignitaries attending the funeral.
Daraine Luton, Gleaner Writer
They came to celebrate Lady B's life and celebrate they did: only that they made themselves the main stars of the sombre affair.
Alfred Smart, Pauline Daley and Ivy Lewis formed an unofficial welcome party by posting themselves at the door of the Sts Peter and Paul Catholic Church.
The three made it clear that their aim was to secure handshakes from every dignitary entering the church.
Few hands escaped and with each successful handshake, the comments came.
"Mr Chuck, Mr Chuck howdy do sir," Smart blurted as the speaker of the House, Delroy Chuck, made his way into the church.
'Schoolmates'
With a second handshake from Chuck, Smart earned toothless grins from his two colleagues.
"I tell you him was going to shake me hand, me know him from school days. Him hand soft," Smart said.
Smart also managed to get handshakes from government Members of Parliament Derrick Smith, Edmund Bartlett and Karl Samuda, all of whom he claimed to have known from 'school days'.
Daley was not having much luck getting handshakes but she was still enjoying herself.
"I come to say goodbye to Lady B because me know her from I was a child," Daley told The Sunday Gleaner before she was distracted by the arrival of former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson.
"A who that," enquired Lewis.
"It's another top man," Smart replied as Lewis announced that it was the former prime minister.
"I know," Smart said as he forced his way around ushers to get a handshake from Patterson.
Smart was outdoing his colleagues and he managed to get handshakes from Major General Stewart Saunders, chief of staff of the Jamaica Defence Force, before placing a surprise kiss on the hand of Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller.
All this time Lewis, who claimed to be Lady B's co-worker, was not missing out on the action. Even though she was not getting handshakes her finger prints were left on the clothes of almost every passing dignitary.
Seemingly moved by the passing of Lady B, Lewis would at times stare blankly at the coffin bearing her body before giving a huge grunt and echoing the sentiments of her colleagues, and perhaps all Jamaica, "Walk good Lady B, we a go miss you."