– Guyanese urged to “live as brothers and sisters” as nation bids farewell to victims

Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice (WCB), Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); and New Amsterdam, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), stood united in grief on Friday as two funeral services marked another painful chapter in the aftermath of the MV Barima tragedy, with families, friends, colleagues and Government officials gathering to pay their final respects to five of the lives lost in the river disaster.

At Bush Lot, a husband and father faced what many described as every parent’s worst nightmare as he bid farewell to his wife and three young children. Hours later, this time at New Amsterdam, relatives and colleagues remembered Acting Boatswain Oren Clarke, a veteran Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD) employee whose years of dedicated service ended while carrying out his duties aboard the ill-fated vessel. The funerals came less than a week after the sinking of the MV Barima, a tragedy that has plunged communities across Guyana into mourning. For Adam Matabheek, Friday was a day no husband or father should ever have to endure. Standing beside four coffins at the family’s Bush Lot home, the grief-stricken father struggled to come to terms with the loss of his wife, Rachel Wells, and their three children: Nathaniel Jr, Nathalia and little Ezekiel.