FUNERAL CRIER BAWLS ABOUT COVID LOCKDOWN
Dalkeith ‘ Kingtson 11’ Wright has been to more than 4,000 funerals and he has no intentions of stopping any time soon. For Wright, attending funerals is not only a hobby but his job. The 40-year-old is a ‘funeral crier’.
“Me go the 14 parishes go bawl, man, and me can bawl fi long and hard, nobody cyah bawl like me,” Wright said.
The Waterhouse resident was introduced to the funeral-crying business by a friend in his community. “The lady wah bring me in a the business dead and she a bury in a this month, and me affi guh put on a show fi her, free of cost because me affi honour the legacy and sing our favourite funeral song, ‘I’m only a pilgrim and stranger’,” he said. Wright told THE WEEKEND STAR that he has been crying at funerals since he was 26. “When my friend them gone watch football me gone a funeral. A my sport that from me young.” He said that he is sometimes hired to turn up at the home-going ceremonies of people he has never even heard of. “Me just put on me show, collect me money then go a me yard,” Wright, a dreadlocked man, said.
The shedding of tears and the ushering of souls to the heavens, by way of his melodious voice, comes at a cost to bereaved family members.
“Me guh funerals to sing but there are times when people say dem want me fi put on a show, so me give dem the show. Me sing and me cry, but sometime other people want me like fi create a scene, like all lay dung pon the coffin when it a go down in a grave, and roll down the whole place.
TO CREATE A SCENE NOW IS $7,000
“A singing alone package costs $3,000 in Kingston and $5,000 a country. To sing and just cry is $5,000 in Kingston, $7,000 in country. To sing and create a scene now is $7,000 in Kingston and $10,000 a country,” he said.
However, like most businesses, Wright’s funeral crying has been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to physical-distancing rules, burials and funerals have been subjected to tight regulations. Since March, burials can only be attended by 15 persons, including the undertakers and the officiating clergy. The service, which can no longer take place in buildings such as churches and community centres, must be held on weekdays, and should last no longer than 30 minutes.
Because of these restrictions, Wright hasn’t been able to wail as much.
“Me go all three funeral in a one day before the corona come lock down the place,” he said. “Before COVID, for all a year me do close to 300 funerals, but after the COVID me nuh pass 60 funeral in 2020, and me get about six since the year start. Me waah the place open up back because a suh me make me money.”
Wright said that there are occasions when he would go job hunting by paying attention to death announcements on TV and in The Gleaner.
“If me go to funeral where me nuh really know the people them, me just approach a family member and tell them say me bawl at funeral, and dem just say ‘alright, do you thing, man’,” said the professional mourner who has never had a duppy experience.
“Me prefer fi go the elder them funeral and babies because nothing too outrageous nah happen a dem funeral deh. The young people funeral them, most times you nuh know a wah kill them or who, so me nuh really wah go and get mix up in a certain tings,” Wright said.
With his business now in the hole, Wright is doing odd jobs to survive.
“Me affi turn to another alternative now fi make money, so like the elderly people who can’t go the drug store me collect and fill them prescription and them pay me. Me just wah the place fi free up suh me can start do back some work,” Wright said.