How could anyone sleep knowing they are responsible for cruelly taking a father away from his children and causing pain to his family?

The question was asked by Apostle Roger Andrew Ramjattan, father of murdered pharmacy owner Chevalle Ramjattan, 42, at his funeral service yesterday.

The only answer to this, Apostle Ramjattan said, is that they have no conscience.

Ramjattan, a father of three teenage girls and a boy who just wrote the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination, was shot dead last week Tuesday night as he was closing his Aranjuez business, Pills & Potions Pharmacy.

Delivering the sermon at his son’s “homegoing service” yesterday, at a packed Faith Assembly Ministries in Five Rivers, Arouca, Apostle Ramjattan’s message to his son’s killer/killers was “what you sow, you will reap”.

“That’s a godly principle. Not my words. I don’t wish anything on anyone,” he quickly added. “The pain a family feels, the pain the children are experiencing… where is the daddy for them to call on again? That hurt is what was sown into lives. I am saying here today without any malice or hatred, God’s word shall come to pass.

“To lose a son is not easy, but the reality is we haven’t lost him. Heaven has gained another soul,” Apostle Ramjattan added.

He said his son’s heart was bigger than his body, and did not let race, religion or social status determine his love for people. “Chevalle had the heart of God. This is why he was able to touch so many lives… and was such a blessing,” Apostle Ramjattan said. He urged the congregation to not seek revenge.

During the two-hour service, there were many tributes from family and friends—all who remembered Ramjattan for his love and compassion towards others, as well as his love for cars. “When I listened to the many, many people who spoke about Chevalle, I could not help but confess that he created a greater impact on lives than I have ever done in pastoral life,” Apostle Ramjattan said.

A mother’s pain

Maureen Ramjattan, the deceased’s mother, said she had a hot dish waiting on the stove for her first-born child on the night of his death.

“On that fateful night, the kettle was up and I looked up at the time and it was 8.24 p.m. and I said Chivy is coming now. Because every other night my Chivy would say mom, I’m coming to have a cup of coffee or tea with you,” she said.

She said that night when she received a call from her son’s wife, Leena, she thought it was because the couple was outside and she needed to open the gate for them, “only to hear her (Leena) screaming ‘mom you need to pray for Chivy’.

“And I just calmly said what’s wrong with him. I thought he had a pain, but when she told me what happened I just really lost it,” she recalled.

“But I haven’t lost my son because I will see him again. And I am not defeated. We the Ramjattan family are not defeated because we know our God and victory is ours,” she said.

Maureen Ramjattan said yesterday morning she prayed for the person or people responsible for her son’s death.

“Because I am mandated by God to forgive. I don’t want that mother to feel the way I feel because there’s not a word created to describe the pain a mother feels,” she said.

Ramjattan’s four children described him as their best friend, hero, and someone they looked up to.

His son said on the day he wrote the SEA exam, his father was the first person to call him. “It’s sad that when he put more effort into spending time with my siblings and I that this had to happen. There were so many things he wanted to do with his family, and this had to happen. And it’s a very depressing thing for everybody here,” the young boy lamented.

“He was always brave,” one of Ramjattan’s daughters said.

“As much as I wish I could love him back to life, because if that was possible he would be here, I wouldn’t because he is happier than he’s ever been and could ever be, and I would never take that away from him.

“On earth he put everyone above himself, so for once I’ll choose his happiness over mine and just learn to deal (with it),” she said.

Ramjattan’s wife paid tribute to him in song.