Eden Nekeisha Teesdale was laid to rest at the Roodal Public Cemetery, San Fernando, yesterday, without her head or her family knowing who killed her, why and how she met her untimely end.
Bernadette Williams, the aunt of the late Teesdale, whose headless body was found floating in a barrel in the Mitan River two weeks ago, said her niece was taken away from them in such a sad and brutal manner because she trusted the wrong person.
In a eulogy at her funeral service at Guides Funeral Home, Coffee Street, San Fernando, Williams said Teesdale was born on August 9, 1990, in the midst of the coup attempt and the state of emergency.
“But she was a quiet child who kept to herself,” Williams said.
She said Teesdale, 26, was also neat and polished, like a model, full of life and laughter, flashing her big beautiful dimpled smile, dimples she passed on to her three children Amyah, five; Kamiyah Ash, three; and one-year-old Hezekiah.
“She was so full of life and love that she trusted the wrong person. She always saw good in everyone,” Williams recalled.
She said Teesdale’s life took a wrong turn when her mother Elennor Williams died in 2009, when she was just 19.
“Although she said nothing, I think that is when she began to stray. We tried our best, we would check up on her when we could,” she said explaining that for periods they would not hear from her but she always called when she was in trouble.
“She was never rude, she was never disrespectful. When you spoke to her she would just smile and do it again. And if you spoke to her and scold her again, she would just smile and do it again.”
Williams described her niece as a dedicated worker who would show up for work even when she was ill.
“When we asked her to stay home she would say, ‘they would miss me at work, one short’... and that is what led to her downfall. She felt she was going for an interview for another job because she was home too long.”
Her brother, Keron, said after his mother’s death his sister became his mother.
“Everything was Eden and Keron, Eden and Keron,” he told the packed chapel.
“The last words she spoke to me was ‘Keron I coming back in an hour.’ I still hearing it ringing in my head.”
Their father, Eric, who returned from the United States for the funeral, said in the midst of the sorrow and grief, he was glad to know that his daughter was so loved.
Another aunt, Mary Joan Francis, also eulogised her, saying she had left a legacy of kindness and love.
A man described as her boyfriend said although a lot was being said about ‘his Babes’ by people who did not know her, Teesdale was the most real and genuine person he knew.
“There is a God,” he said, as another mourner urged the family to put their trust in God.
Bishop Norma Raymond, who conducted the service, encouraged parents to plead the blood of Jesus on their children so that they would not meet a similar tragic end.