Lynford Bennett Watson

   Lynford Bennett Watson was born in Glengoffe, St Catherine on July 6, 1936 to his mother Mary Louise Watson. He grew up with his stepfather William Taylor and his mother Mary. He attended the Gradefull Hill Primary school and later became a carpenter by trade. Later in his life, he met and married Joyce Icilda Harris and they had eight children, six boys and two girls. They settled on the outskirts of Linstead in the Byndloss District, St. Catherine. Lynford also had two additional children named Aninta Watson, who was the eldest of his children, and Jason Oneil Watson which was the youngest of his ten children. He was a very hard worker, where he worked as a carpenter and also as a farmer. In his younger years, he would travel often to the United States to do farm work where he picked apples, oranges, and cut sugar cane. He was very passionate about keeping his children in line for them to stay out of trouble. He was very strict and set in his ways, but he loved his children. My father was tall and strong with big feet, large hands, and visible popping veins, which stood out from a distance. A nurse would never have a hard time finding his veins.

   Lynford was a devout Catholic and he had great faith. He always says that nothing beats prayer. As a grandfather, he found joy in seeing his grandchildren and spending time with them. He loved to help anyone who crossed his pathway. At one point in his life, he was a resident of the United States, but found it hard to live here because it got so cold in the winter, and his arthritis would flare up very badly. After the death of his wife, he partially raised his granddaughter Asheba until she migrated to the US, where he lived alone until he was unable to care for himself anymore. On January 10, 2025, he traveled to the US where he became ill and was taken to the Robert Wood Johnson Hospital. He was discharged two weeks later on Hospice, where he died peacefully at his daughter's home in New Brunswick.

   He was preceded in death by his wife Joyce Watson in January 2015, his second son Kirk Watson who died in the summer of 2024, and Jason Watson in 2010. He is survived by two daughters, Donnarie and Dahlia Watson, five sons, Winford, Carvel, Milton, Curlew and Abraham, twenty-four grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews, sisters, brothers, good friends and a host of many acquaintances. Though we mourn his passing, we are here to celebrate his long life and the person we know him to be, a strong man, a husband, a father, a grandfather, a great grandfather, a brother, an uncle, a son and a faithful friend. He left this world, but his spirit still lives on in the countless memories that he left behind. Goodbye my father, you will always live on in my heart and in my thoughts. May your soul rest in peace until we meet again. You are gone but will never be forgotten. I love you