Bahamas News

Hundreds of people flowed in and out of Sweetings Colonial Mortuary and Crematorium on Balliou Hill Road on Friday to view the body of murdered fashion designer Harl Taylor.

Mr. Taylor was found dead in his Mountbatten House residence in early November. He was the country’s 68th murder.

The discovery of Mr. Taylor’s body came two days after police found the body of College of the Bahamas Dean Dr. Thaddeus McDonald in his Queen Street home, which is just minutes away from where Mr. Taylor was found dead.

When members of the public went to view Mr. Taylor’s body on Friday, they got an unusual surprise. Mr. Taylor was not laid out in a coffin as customary in the Bahamas, but he was sitting upright behind a desk.

Mr. Taylor, who was clad in a black suit and a black turtleneck, was surrounded by some of his earthly possessions including a straw portfolio, starfishes, his 2000 Cacique Award and one of his many handbag creations.

Funeral Director of Sweetings Colonial Mortuary and Crematorium Ted Sweeting said sitting Mr. Taylor upward was his idea. He said it was something that he always wanted to do.

“This is something that I have had in mind for a long time,” Mr. Sweeting said. “The sitting of the chair came from little sons Damien and Dominic. They said ‘Daddy do it now’. They told me that we have to make history in The Bahamas and this is the first time it has been done in The Bahamas and I don’t think that this has reached West Palm and Miami as yet. But it is happening up north.”

Mr. Sweeting said he had actually pitched the idea to Beverly Taylor, Mr. Taylor’s mother and she happily agreed.

“She said to me ‘Ted, do what you want because I know that you are the best,” he said.

While some persons dubbed the viewing as “unusual” others were pleased with what they saw.

Chandra Gibson said she thought the viewing was “unique”.

“It’s very different,” she said. “I haven’t seen a person sitting up in any funeral home. Most people you see would have been just laying down in the coffin but it is really something different and I hope that Mr. Sweeting gets a lot more business after this.”

Kim Duncombe had the same sentiments. She said was amazed by what she saw.

“It’s amazing to see that you could have the dead sitting up in a chair,” Ms. Duncombe said. “It is something that I never saw in my whole life.”

But others like Kevin Parker were outraged.

“This is strange,” he said. “I have never seen anything like this in my time. Normally when religious leaders die you would see them laid out and this just shows the flamboyant lifestyle that he lived.”

Julian McKinney was another person who was disturbed by the viewing.

“How could they do something like that?” he asked. “That is totally disrespectful to the dead. Its almost as if he is being made to look like a spectacle.”

Mr. Sweeting said Mr. Taylor will be put in a wooden coffin and marched to St. Agnes Anglican Church where the service will be held.

Mr. Taylor will be cremated.

Funeral Services for Mr. Taylor will be held today at 10am at the church.

Source: Bahama Journal