[Written by Patrick Bean]
A large crowds of residents from across the island stood shoulder to shoulder in a powerful display of Bermudian solidarity to honour the victims of the Latitude Air Ambulance tragedy.
Organised by the West End Ministerial Alliance as a Sunset Prayer Vigil, the gathering served as both a tribute to the six lives lost on the flight from Bermuda to Boston – including Bermudians Lavonne Bean and Sergio Lottimore, and Canadian crew members Captain Philip Childerhose, First Officer Thomas Farquhar, Flight Nurse Sarah Paton and Respiratory Therapist Jolene Weir – and as a collective embrace for their families. Through prayer, song and quiet reflection, the community offered not just remembrance, but hope.
Bishop Stephen Jones was awestruck by the response to the church coalition’s call for support and that some modicum of hope can be fulfilled.
“I’m blown away by the support of our island,” said Jones, pastor at Beulah Tabernacle. “All the way from Somerset right to St. David’s, we were getting support and questions as to ‘When is the time? What’s the best way to come? All kinds of advice on how best to do this.
“I’m blown away by how we come together when things go wrong, and how we can be so supportive of one another. The love, the prayers, the kind words blow you away.
“These two people who passed made an impact. They don’t understand everything, but their impact is felt deeply within their family and on the Island. “I look out to the sea of people, and I’m like, ‘Wow, God does it for a reason, doesn’t he?’
“And from government leaders to the club, White Hill came together to assist any way that they could. Clergy from all walks of life, Black and White, every demographic, were represented here today. And that’s wonderful.”
Just as chaos offers opportunity, Bishop Jones intimated that catastrophe can catalyse transformation, and tragedy often offers pause, a time to consider the present, forcing people to confront what truly matters and rebuild with greater purpose.
“My prayer is that this reminds us of what is really important,” said Bishop Jones. “I think we get caught up in stuff that, in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t really matter.
“If we don’t work together for the sake of this country, it doesn’t matter who’s at the front or the back or on top or who’s leading.
“If we don’t support each other, we’re not going to be the country we’re called to be, and, unfortunately, tragedy and pain bring it out. But my prayer is that this moment gives us a chance to reset, focus on what’s important and what isn’t, and make good steps towards what’s going to help us to get better.”
The event opened with a prayer by Allen Temple AME pastor Howard Dill, and continued with a lesson about grief from Shirley Place.
Place addressed the vigil as the clinical director of Turning Point and as a grief counsellor — and as the daughter of a father who once had to take the same medivac road. She offered ten counsels, directed to both the family and the supporters, noting they weren’t a template for closure, but a vocabulary for the long, unpredictable work of mending a heart.
Bermudian recording artist Olivia Hamilton, at the family’s request, sang a touching, strong rendition of “The Prayer” before Rev. Rachel Marszalek, the first woman licensed as a priest-in-charge in the Anglican Church of Bermuda, said a prayer.
As a means of encouraging the families, indeed all in attendance, to go boldly to God to talk to Him about their problems, challenges, and struggles, Whitney Houston’s hit recording “I Hasten to Thy Throne” from the soundtrack of the Movie “The Preacher’s Wife”.
Major Jermaine Bean of the Salvation Army tried to bring the ceremony to a close with what was supposed to be a final prayer. Gavin Smith, nephew of Ms Bean and cousin of Mr Lottimore, took the stage and tearfully eulogised the pair.
“I’m sorry this wasn’t really planned, and I appreciate everyone,” Smith began while choking back tears. “I’m Gavin. I’m one of the nephews and Sergio’s first cousin, and I thought I could handle it.
“I’ll say thank you for us, you know, because this has been hard. And obviously it’s been hard beyond just us in the family.
“I was actually stuck overseas a bit before coming back, so I missed out on a lot. But on that side, it was shocking and amazing to see how the world was behind us. And I want to thank everyone for keeping Aunt Lavonne and Sergio in your hearts and for coming out tonight. Thank you to the pastors for putting it together.
“And for those who didn’t know Aunt Lavonne, she was really the heart of our family. And she really kept a lot of us together. She looked out for everyone in our family. She looked out for the elders and the youngest. She was a real intergenerational link that we will miss and lose. Honestly, she would have been so vexed that all these people had to pass by trying to keep her with us. And she probably would have fought somebody to keep Sergio off that plane or any of her children off that plane because she wouldn’t have wanted him to go with her like that or any of her children to go with her like that.
“And Sergio, if you didn’t know him, Sergio was an incredible young man. He was younger than me, but he was a hero to me. He lived humbly and took care of his family in every way he could. Big things, small things, and knowing him meant loving him.
“And if you knew him, then you knew that he was… He was here with purpose. And I think, Aunt Lavonne, you know, it was interesting to watch her go through life as a young girl. Because she was like, oh, my young auntie.
“And to watch her move from her young motherhood phase to her older motherhood phase, find the Lord for real, and start putting that into every single conversation we had.
“It would always be leading with Jesus Christ, whom she knew personally. So it’s really apt that you guys, that the pastors came through. Sergio! That boy would have fought to be there with his mama. You’d have to stop him. And we were joking about it because it was like, out of everyone I knew, or everyone in our family knew, it was Sergio who could make it through this.
“That was the whole conversation. And as it became this horrible reality, I didn’t want my cousin up there in the water fighting to come back to us when he’d served his purpose. He was here only for a short time, but he impacted so many lives, and I just wanted, on behalf of the family, to talk about him.
“On behalf of our family, thank you so much for coming out and keeping us in your hearts and minds. And please give us a shout and do something nice in their memory.
“Hug someone you love because you never know when it might not be the last. It might be the last time. Thank you for everything.”