‘Dingie’ sister slams social media rumours

When Patsy Stewart-Barnaby told a church congregation that her beloved brother Noel 'Dingie' White "gone hell headway", her bluntness turned his funeral into a viral moment.

Since then several outlandish claims have surfaced on social media, many of which cast a shadow on the departed man's character.

Stewart-Barnaby has watched with dismay as rumours surface one after another on social media.

"Social media people a go talk all different type of stuffs," she told THE WEEKEND STAR.

"Everything weh yuh hear pon social media a make up. Nothing no go so. People just want 'likes', want money, want to stir it up," she said.

The Clarendon woman said that her statement at the funeral was never meant to tear down her brother's reputation, but to highlight her religious belief that salvation requires repentance.

Determined to protect her brother's memory, Stewart-Barnaby rejected the claims as baseless, insisting that the man the family buried on September 14 was nothing like the version being portrayed online.

"Yuh cya listen to dem something deh. Dem nuh add up. ... Mi nuh know weh dem get fi dem story from."

While Stewart-Barnaby insists her words were grounded in faith, they clashed with tradition. Funerals in Jamaica are typically solemn affairs, with pastors and family members almost always assuring mourners that the deceased has 'gone to heaven'.

Stewart-Barnaby opined that the backlash grew because only a snippet of her funeral remarks was shared, without the context of her full tribute.

"That is the reason why the person who send out the clip shoulda send out everything. Because they only send out that part, dem a seh mi brother wicked. My brother was not a wicked person. He wasn't," she said.

She maintained that her comment came solely in response to a pastor at the funeral who declared that White had gone to heaven.

"I know the reason why I said those things. He wasn't a child of God. Him nuh go church, him nuh do nothing 'bout God. Is because of the pastor why I said that. They said he went to heaven with God, and all that. Is not because mi hate mi brother," she explained.

Looking back, she admitted that while her conviction has not changed, she might have chosen her words differently had she known the reaction they would spark.

"If mi did know it would a go so far, mi wouldn't say it. People twist up mi words and miss the message, that we need fi repent fi reach heaven," she said. Her comments have divided relatives: some believe she went too far, while others defend her conviction that "truth should not be sugar-coated".

Even as relatives disagree, most agree that White was devoted to his family. White, who lived in Pleasant Valley, Clarendon, was remembered as someone who "would move mountains" for his loved ones. He died after a short illness linked to a chest infection, and is survived by his wife, children, six sisters, and two brothers.

"Mi mention that my brother was a good person and a family person. He was one of my best brothers," she said.

"From yuh nuh repent, yuh just don't repent. Yuh caah pretty up nothing. But weh dem a talk pon social media, nothing like that happened," she said.