Widow honoured at firebombing victim’s funeral

Eldena Lewis, 82, who survived a home invasion which ended with her husband being shot, their house burned down and herself suffering burns, was honoured by relatives and loved ones at the funeral of her husband George, 92. The funeral was held on Wednesday at the Mt Calvary Holy Church in Harding Place, Cocorite.

“I thank God for the excellent job my mom did for my father,” said Yvette Lewis-Slater, one of their five children. “Anyone that knows her knows she is a warrior.”

Lewis-Slater said when criminals invaded the Lewises' home, shot Lewis in the head and set fire to their home on Monday last week, Lewis was screaming to his wife, “Eldie, go! Eldie, go!” but she would not leave his side.

Instead, she pulled her husband out of the burning house and into the yard. Neighbours who heard the commotion found her trying to save her husband. They took her from the yard and tried to go back for Lewis,
but the heat coming from the house was too much for them.

George died from smoke inhalation, according to the autopsy report. He was so badly burned that it could not be determined whether a wound at the side of his head was in fact a gunshot wound. However, police are working on the theory that gunmen attacked the Lewises while searching for a relative who they believed had been involved in another murder hours before.

Eldena Lewis, who was burned on her back and arms, is still in hospital. She watched the funeral from her hospital bed as the service was broadcast live through Dennie's Funeral Home.

In his eulogy, Lewis was described as a man of few words.

“He was never a gossiper,” Lewis-Slater said. “When he spoke, he spoke with authority and wisdom. When he spoke, nobody moved.”

Slater said he loved music, and on a regular basis one could hear music from many different genres. But, on Sundays, he would play old gospel singers like Jim Reeves and Pat Boone.

The only thing he loved more than music was western movies. Slater said he would quote lines from his favourite westerns.

“He would say, ‘You better get outta town by sundown,’ whenever we went out. That meant to come home before sundown. And he would say other things like, ‘Your execution will be a day early.'”

Pastor Anthony Taylor said while some incidents like Lewis’s murder simply do not make sense to the human mind, the Almighty is always in control.

“Life should be for the good and death for the bad, but it seems in the opposite. If this fails, then there must be some mystical cosmic order that grants meaning to life, for each thing has its proper time and cycle.

“There must be a God to bring some meaning to what we are experiencing. Sometimes we miss it because we look for the understanding and the meaning in this life, but we need to look beyond that. We need to look beyond time and see that God lives in eternity.”