Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Clad in pink, the colour she loved, co-work­ers of mur­dered nurse O’delle Lal­man-Bap­tiste stood to­geth­er in the foy­er of the Point Fortin Hos­pi­tal on East­er Mon­day night as they held a can­dle­light vig­il in mem­o­ry of her life. 

Form­ing a heart, they held up their can­dles and sang Go Light Your World as tears rolled silent­ly for the friend they lost.

The vig­il came three days af­ter Lal­man-Bap­tiste was kid­napped and killed. Her body was found in Carlsen Field, Ch­agua­nas, two kilo­me­tres from where she was tak­en af­ter her hus­band Math­ias Bap­tiste, a car deal­er, stopped to uri­nate. One of the kid­nap­pers was lat­er shot dead by po­lice when they in­ter­cept­ed the get­away ve­hi­cle.

Speak­ing at the vig­il, her friend and col­league Ava Camp­bell, re­mem­bered Lal­man-Bap­tiste as a de­vot­ed and com­pas­sion­ate nurse.

“O'delle was the per­son­i­fi­ca­tion of a nurse. No mat­ter the sit­u­a­tion, no mat­ter how peo­ple treat­ed her, she re­spond­ed with kind­ness. She treat­ed every­one with re­spect. I want peo­ple to know O'delle was loved. I felt it when I vis­it­ed her home. I want to re­mem­ber her for her smile," Camp­bell said.

Cowork­er Asha­ki Renne strug­gled to speak. “I re­al­ly love you. I miss you. I pray your fam­i­ly finds strength. I pray your friends, your batch­mates—God will give us strength," she sobbed.

Ker­lene Joseph, who cared for Lal­man-Bap­tiste's three-year-old son, De­lanie, said, “O'delle loved her son.”

Si­mon Alex­is, her su­per­vi­sor at the South West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty, com­fort­ed mourn­ers as read from the Bible say­ing even in grief, God will pro­vide strength.

“We are nev­er alone. Though the walls may ap­pear to close in, the Lord is near. He waits for us to call up­on Him. The pain is re­al, but we are not with­out hope,” he said.

Cousin, Tri­cia Sama­roo, spoke on be­half of the fam­i­ly.

“Though our hearts are break­ing, this ges­ture brings com­fort. Every­thing that was said here tonight is what we have known of O'delle since she was a lit­tle girl. Thank you to the staff, the man­age­ment, every­one who made this pos­si­ble. This is some­thing we will car­ry in our hearts as we try to get through," Sama­roo said.

Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Point Fortin, Kennedy Richards, called for uni­ty and jus­tice.

“These are not easy cir­cum­stances. I met Odelle once or twice. She was the kind of per­son we want in health­care. This gath­er­ing speaks to the life she lived. It’s a hard thing for any fam­i­ly to face. I hope we all con­tin­ue to ral­ly be­hind her loved ones. I pray jus­tice is served," he said.

As the can­dles flick­ered in the night, he urged every­one to re­mem­ber her as some­one who loved oth­ers.

An au­top­sy is sched­uled to be done on Lal­man-Bap­tiste's body to­day at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre.