Final farewell for seven-year-old Angelica Jogie

Hun­dreds of griev­ing rel­a­tives, friends, class­mates and well-wish­ers gath­ered at Mon­key Town, Bar­rack­pore, on Sat­ur­day to bid a sor­row­ful farewell to sev­en-year-old An­gel­i­ca Saydee Jo­gie dur­ing a fu­ner­al ser­vice held un­der Hin­du rites at her home.

An­gel­i­ca died af­ter be­ing struck by an out-of-con­trol jet ski while va­ca­tion­ing with her fam­i­ly at Pi­geon Point Beach on April 8.

Her shin­ing cof­fin, adorned with pink and pur­ple but­ter­flies, with a stuffed toy placed in­side, rest­ed in front of a dec­o­ra­tive dis­play fea­tur­ing her pho­to­graph, with pink, lilac and pur­ple bal­loons. Two pil­lars adorned with leaves and ros­es framed the area.

Dressed like a princess, An­gel­i­ca, who would have cel­e­brat­ed her birth­day on April 23, was re­mem­bered through trib­utes, many re­flect­ed on the light, joy and pre­cious mem­o­ries she brought in­to their lives.

Her par­ents, Arnold and Sal­isha Jo­gie, along with her old­er sis­ter An­geli­na, per­formed Hin­du rites dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny, guid­ed by Pun­dit Ma­haraj, as prayers were of­fered for her soul. Her class­mates from Stan­dard 1, San Fer­nan­do, were present, while her old­er sis­ter An­geli­na de­liv­ered a heart­felt eu­lo­gy, re­call­ing that just a week ago, they were hap­pi­ly to­geth­er in To­ba­go, shar­ing what would be­come their fi­nal joy­ful mo­ments. She de­scribed An­gel­i­ca as her “built-in best friend” and a piece of her heart.

An­gel­i­ca’s griev­ing moth­er, Sal­isha Jo­gie, re­called the mo­ments lead­ing up to the tragedy, not­ing that An­gel­i­ca was hav­ing a per­fect day. Tourism Sec­re­tary Hack­ett of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly and Na­pari­ma MP Nar­ine Roop­nar­ine ex­pressed con­do­lences and pledged to con­tin­ue sup­port­ing the Jo­gie fam­i­ly.

The cre­ma­tion will take place at the Shore of Peace.