Educator Symmonds remembered as role model

Dame Olga Patricia Symmonds was on Friday eulogised as an educator who improved the lives of others,

And on Friday as mourners gathered to remember her at a funeral at the James Street Methodist Church, Bishop Reverend Derick Richards urged Barbadians to follow in her footsteps and to live with a sense of priority.

The legendary secondary school principal died on May 27 at the age of 94.

With the COVID-19 restrictions still in place, only a small group of mourners were present at the Bridgetown church. But hundreds more viewed the service as it was streamed online.

Among those in attendance were Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Cabinet colleagues Santia Bradshaw, Cynthia Forde and Kerrie Symmonds.

Reverend Richards, the Bishop of the South Caribbean District of the Methodist Church, said it was important to live life with a sense of urgency and priority because we all “had a limited time in this world”.

Pallbearers escort the casket of Dame Patricia Symmonds into the James Street Methodist Church.

He maintained that while tomorrow was not promised, people lived their lives with many regrets.

But Reverend Richards said Dame Patricia did no such thing.

He said her accomplishments as an educator were substantial and she had helped to shape the landscape in that sector.

He said: “We must live our lives with a sense of priority and by that I mean our lives must make a difference and that our lives must impact human society in such a way that we leave the world a better place so that we can hand to the next generation a better world than was handed to us,” he said.

“And Sister Patricia lived with a clear sense of priority, making a difference, improving human society, improving the lives of others and by extension leaving Barbados a better place.”

He urged those in attendance to take a leaf from Dame Patricia’s book.

“The question is what will be your contribution to the well being of the nation and the well being of those who will come afterwards?” Reverend Richards asked.

“We can’t just live for us. Our children must inherit something better than what we would have inherited. So I challenge you to live life with a great sense of urgency, to live life with a sense of eternity and to live life with a sense of priority.”

Dame Patricia was buried at the Westbury Cemetery.
randybennett@barbadostoday.bb