She had no children of her own, but relatives of the late Beslyn Margaret Tracey have described her as the matriarch of the Tracey family. According to relatives and friends who paid glowing tribute to her during a thanksgiving service to celebrate her life on Saturday, February 8, at Brown’s Town Tabernacle Church, ‘Aunt Bes’ or ‘Sister Beslyn’ as she was affectionately called, was a woman of great fortitude.“Sister Beslyn was kind and compassionate, she loved children and she was very faithful, she was a mother to many, she was a strict disciplinarian, she was a woman who invested in the life of people,” her friend of over 20 years, Lorraine Prendergast said in her tribute. Another close friend and mentee of Aunt Beslyn, Dr. Douglas Bryan, described her as a ‘Lioness’. He said she had all the qualities of a good mother and that she was more than a mother to him. He said she lived an exemplary life and impacted positively thousands of lives especially in Jamaica, the UK and New York.
IMPACT ON LIVES
One of her nephews, Reverend Ellis McKenzie, in a moving tribute to his aunt brought to tears many persons in the packed church, as he spoke about his many encounters with her and how she impacted his life as well as those of other family members. He said she was one of a kind and was that family member who invested in her family. “It’s the investment that she made in us why some of us are here today, she was so gracious to all of us, she loved us all, she did what she could for all of us,” Rev. Ellis said as he broke down in tears.Several other tributes were also paid to Aunt Bes in songs and a dance by her grandnieces. Speaker after speaker spoke about her love for children, how gracious she was towards others, her creativity, commitment to her church and God and her commitment to the nursing career.Aunt Beslyn obtained her certification in nursing in the UK and first worked at the University Hospital for seven years before she migrated to the United States in 1961 where she gained employment at the Lennox Hill Hospital in New York where she spent 23 years before retiring in 1999 as head of Nursing.Two of her nieces, Carol Tracey-Alexander and Marlene Tracey, as they delivered the eulogy likened their aunt to the ‘BBC World News’ of the family, adding that she knew everything that was happening in the family. They said she was the backbone of the Tracey family and was outstanding in many ways.She was also praised for her involvement in the establishment of the Brown’s Town Prep School and a part of the offering collected during the service, the church said, would go towards establishing the Beslyn Tracey playground at the school which is located on the church grounds. The other portion will go towards the Sturge Town Tabernacle Building Fund. Her remains were interred at the church cemetery.
