Her husband, remanded on a murder charge, was not at the funeral
After being postponed many times, slain mother of three, Bridgette Gangadin, was finally interred at the Good Hope, East Coast Demerara, cemetery yesterday, after an emotional and dramatic farewell. After a religious ceremony, in the presence of two of her three sons, the body of Gangadin was buried.
Relatives, overwhelmed by grief, danced and chanted, “Bridgette gone, Bridgette gone”, to music that blared from a car parked close to the cemetery.
Some cried openly, while others screamed her name and consoled themselves by consuming alcohol and embracing each other.
Her uncle, Heeralall Sookdeo, bid his niece farewell by hurling insults at relatives of her husband, Dwarka Gangadin, who was remanded to prison for her murder .
Gangadin was not at the funeral.
Sometime after the Hindu priest ended the religious ceremony, relatives of the deceased stripped the body of the bright yellow sari which was presented by Dwarka’s family, and handed it over to them.
At the cemetery, hundreds showed up to view the body and stood by and cried for Bridgette, whose tomb bore several floral arrangements and wreaths.
The police presence was noticeably large at the cemetery and they left only after the tomb was sealed.
The body was at her parents’ Annandale home for one hour, where a religious ceremony was performed and relatives including, her parents, were inconsolable.
Then the body was taken to her husband’s home at Lusignan Public Road, where viewing took place amidst loud wails of agony and despair.
Bridgette’s face was moulded and heavy with makeup to cover the extensive damage she received after her husband’s canter truck crushed her head.
“That is not Bridgette, it’s not her, look at her face, her beautiful face was damaged, imagine a young pretty woman gone just like that,” relatives cried.
Bridgette’s sons, with shaven heads, cried as they observed the religious ceremony and were consoled by relatives.
Bridgette Gangadin’s body was found on the roadway at Vigilance, on the East Coast Demerara, on May 2, and the first autopsy, by Dr. Nehaul Singh, established that the mother of three succumbed to a fractured skull and injuries consistent with her head being crushed.
However, a second post mortem by Trinidadian Pathologist, Professor Hubert Daisley, at the Georgetown Public Hospital mortuary said the woman was strangled.