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| Official funeral for Maynard on Friday |
Travis Cartwright-Carroll
Guardian Staff Reporter travis@nasguard.com
Published: Aug 20, 2012
An official funeral for Free National Movement (FNM) Chairman Charles Maynard will take place on Friday at 11 a.m. at Christ Church Cathedral, according to members of his family. Maynard, 42, died from a massive heart attack last week while he was in North Abaco. Maynard was the co-ordinator for the FNM’s North Abaco by-election campaign. He was elected chairman of the party in May after he lost his Golden Isles seat in the general election, and his party was voted out of office. His death shocked both the FNM, members of the government and many other people. “A minister in office is entitled to an official funeral,” Prime Minister Perry Christie told reporters on Friday. “Both sides of the political divide have used their discretion in terms of the quality and level and service granted to someone who has died. “Charles Maynard is automatically entitled to that.” Maynard’s father, Andrew ‘Dud’ Maynard, told The Nassau Guardian last week that Cabinet has agreed to give the family a special funeral and the government will cover the costs. “Their modus operandi is to give you a letter that you can take to the undertaker pointing out how much money you are allowed to spend,” Maynard said. “In other words you can’t go and arrange for a $50,000 funeral unless you want to pay for it yourself because they’re only paying a certain amount of that. Of course, I don’t know what the $50,000 funeral is for, it doesn’t make sense to me. “It’s too much. It is ridiculous to spend that kind of money into the ground when people down in Bain Town and other places [are] hungry.” Maynard said the family intends to have his son’s casket made in New Providence. He noted that the family wished to accommodate people from the Family Islands who want to attend the funeral. Maynard is survived by his wife, Zelena, his three daughters, his parents and many other family members and friends. |
