Boyne had lasting impact on our lives

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I ATTENDED the funeral service for Ian Boyne on Sunday at the National Indoor Sports Centre. I went not because I wanted to be numbered among those persons who attended, not for the social hype it could bring, and certainly not because he was a colleague.

I went because I felt compelled to do so as he was the first person to interview me in 2006, when I was elected the first president of the National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica.

When I got the call in July 2006 that he wanted to do an interview with me on his programme ‘ Issues and Answers’, I felt delighted, because this was the first time I was going to speak to someone in media.

I was asked to take along a colleague from the PTA movement, so I took Annmarie Stewart who, at that time, was the PTA president at St Andrew High School for Girls.

The consummate professional at his craft, he wanted the scoop on this new organisation; he wanted to know what this national body would do to improve PTAs islandwide.

I also felt compelled to attend his funeral service because he impacted my mother as well. When our father died in May 2001, she never cried when she lost her husband. Yet when she heard that Ian Boyne had passed, she cried.

I give thanks for my interaction with him and for the way he affected not only my life by introducing me to media, but that of my mother, too. She never missed an episode of ‘Profile’, as it became one of her must-see shows. SYLVESTER E. ANDERSON Valentine Gardens Kingston 19