Marlon Smith – a gem of a cop
IN the last two months, people who have done well for Jamaica have progressed to the unknown.
Among the close ones to me were Neville Myton, the former junior world record holder in the 880 yards, now replaced by the 800 metres, who coached and mentored many athletes and footballers, and was an authority on talent; Orville Clarke, the former Kingston College student,
Gleaner Company employee, movie historian (I called him moviecologist), and above all, an outstanding horse racing writer and tipster; Godfrey “Hopie” Lothian, the former Institute of Sport officer and president of the Jamaica Table Tennis Association, and now, it is Sergeant Marlon Smith, who perished in the line of duty while he performed duties as close protection officer for Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke.
Losing all of them was tough, but the freshest of them all – that of the demise of Smith was bitter, made so because of how it happened – the result of an accident in Trelawny last week.
I last spoke to the veteran policeman on Nomination Day last August when he accompanied Dr Clarke to the Pembroke Hall Community Centre. We chatted at length, starting before Dr Clarke submitted his papers to the returning officer, paid his fee, and greeted others inside the facility. And even when Dr Clarke decided to change his everyday office shoes for dancing ones, and tried to match seasoned shakers on the makeshift dance floor made of asphalt along Ken Hill Drive, Marlon was there with me talking all kinds of things, including the achievements of his children and those of others.
Who would have thought that the man I had known, even before he was assigned to one of my top 10 favourite politicians of all time, Derrick Smith, the former Cabinet minister and MP for the same St Andrew North Western, would have left Earth in such a brutal manner?
Smith’s family, and those of Myton, Clarke, and Lothian, must be in a bad way. But, there is hope, and if people who know them will continue to reach out to them, the pain will be lessened.