RELATIVES of 54-year-old Judith Seymour, nee Denbow, killed during a bloody attack on students at an Oakland university last Monday, are preparing for her body to be flown home to Guyana for interment, in keeping with specific requests made by the woman in her lifetime. But the burial will likely be delayed for a few days, due to a glitch with travel documents affecting the elder of her two children, Camilla, who is to accompany her mother’s body home to Guyana. Nevertheless, relatives in both the USA and Guyana are optimistic that the glitch would soon be sorted out, based on indications that there has been intervention from the offices of Senator Dianne Feinstein in San Jose.
A KGO newspaper report coming out of California a few days ago quoted a Grief Counselling Officer in the Senator’s office as stressing the importance of Camilla’s journey to Guyana to accompany the body and be involved in the burial of her mother, noting especially that it is an important part of the healing process.
The officer, who specializes in grief counselling, reportedly said, “It offers comfort for people to be able to be present, to be witness to the final destination.”
Contacted yesterday at his Charlotte Street home in Guyana, Seymour’s father, Carlyle Denbow, had no details, but expressed gratitude to the officers he said he learnt were trying to assist his granddaughter expedite the bureaucratic process which has to be observed.
Noting that theirs was a very closely knit family, the distraught father and grandfather opined that his granddaughter’s accompanying the body of her mother was the only way closure could be brought to this very painful episode.  Either way, the outcome would definitely have an impact on the young woman, who is now reading for her Master’s Degree in Business Management.
Denbow said he did not have details, but learnt that a problem had surfaced but authorities were trying to help.  He said his wife was devastated on learning that there might be a problem with her granddaughter being able to travel. He also said that relatives here would not be able to make any funeral arrangements until they had been given clear directions from others in the United States.  US-based relatives, including Judith’s other child, Brian, her younger sister Chyril and others, are preparing to travel home as well.
Mr. Benbow said family members in California were expecting the body to be released to them on Friday, but he was not sure what the present status was.  He said the funeral parlour here in Guyana was also awaiting confirmation, since its employees would have to receive the body at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
But one thing was certain, the distraught father said, and that was that Judith Seymour would be buried at Auchlyne Cemetery on the Corentyne, next to her maternal grandmother, in keeping with her wishes.
The late Judith Seymour is also survived by her former husband, Bryan Seymour; brother, Carlyle (Jnr); fiancé Tim Brown of California; paternal grandparents and other relatives and friends.