Murdered Guyanese mom, Susan Powell, laid to rest

Mar 13, 2013 News

(Antigua Observer) – Five broken-hearted children and their father on Monday said goodbye to their mother and wife, Guyana-born Susan Powell in a thanksgiving service for the 38-year-old sales clerk, murdered at work two weeks ago.
With tear-filled eyes, 10-year-old Christine Powell eulogised her mother in a poem titled “Memories of Mommy.”
For heartbroken husband Wayne Powell, it was a day he said he “never imagined.” He sat alongside the children – with tear-stained cheeks.

Susan Powell (inset)was laid to rest on Monday in Antigua, two weeks after she was shot dead in a store.

Students of Baptist Academy of Antigua, which three of the couple’s children attend, and Jennings Secondary School, where a fourth attends, participated in the service, paying tribute in songs God Will Make A Way and He Raised Me Up, respectively.
National Security Minister, Dr Errol Cort, opposition leader Gaston Browne and head of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Superintendent Nuffield Burnette, attended the service held at the Central Baptist Church in Radio Range.
The church was filled to capacity with only close relatives and dignitaries. Hundreds of other mourners were also gathered on the compound under tents to pay respect.
They nodded and smiled as Powell’s younger brother, Toshaa Hope, reminisced on who she was.
Like Dr Hensworth Jonas, pastor of the Central Baptist Church who delivered the sermon, Hope said his sister and husband worked hard to secure a good education for their offspring – Whitney, Ashley, Malcolm, Christine and Shaniya – while ensuring they went to church and learned God’s word.
Hope said the best way to pay tribute to Powell would be to keep her children on the path she showed them.
Remembering Powell, Dr Jonas noted, “Mrs Susan Powell was a member in good standing of the Central Baptist Church for more than a decade. She (was) well-known and loved by all church members of the ECBM Baptist Circuit of Churches.”
Powell was gunned down on February 26 while on duty as a saleswoman at First Gadget Electronics in Heritage Quay around 1:15 pm.
Up to press time last night, police had not charged anyone for the killing. Powell was entombed at St John’s Public cemetery.