Funeral director prepares to bury mother - Still reeling from tragic loss of brother last year

July 30, 2025
Lenexia Wynter (left) with brother JaJuan Wynter and mom Portia Campbell.
Lenexia Wynter (left) with brother JaJuan Wynter and mom Portia Campbell.
JaJuan Wynter
JaJuan Wynter
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Every day 20-year-old Lenexia Wynter steps into work at her family's business, Genesis Funeral Home, she walks in with a brave face, because just beneath her office lies the body of her beloved mother, Portia Campbell.

"Mi deh upstairs a work and mi know seh mi mother deh downstairs inna di fridge," she told THE STAR, trembling. "Sometimes I am tempted to just go and pull out the fridge just to see her but I decided not to. Mi a save di emotions for when mi go embalm her, do her make-up, get her ready myself. Mi nah look pon her every day. Mi want [to] remember her smiling."

The weight she carries is unimaginable since Campbell died of stage four breast cancer on July 7, just a year after Wynter lost her 14-year-old brother, JaJuan Wynter, in a horrific car crash on May 14, 2024.

"I lost my brother, now I lost my mother. We were all so close and even now mi still a try process everything but I have to keep moving," said Wynter.

JaJuan, a grade nine student at Titchfield High School, was the light of their home, a musical genius and a quiet leader who could play any instrument - he had six JCDC gold medals to his name.

"He was a gem. Always resolving conflict, always smiling, loved by everybody. From babies to elderly, Buff Bay people will tell you how him touch dem life," she said. From as young as six, he also began working at Genesis Funeral Services, proudly directing funerals in full uniform beside his father.

"He'd go work on weekends and get paid. He loved it," Wynter recalled.

But on that fateful May afternoon, the taxi taking him and his best friend Onaje Lindsay home from school crashed into a parked truck loaded with stones. While still drowning in grief, Wynter found herself having to write her little brother's eulogy.

"Mi remember sabotaging it, 'cause mi couldn't manage fi face it. And all now, sometimes mi still can't believe," she said. She clung tightly to Campbell, who was her anchor and her comfort. But by January, she noticed something was off. Tests confirmed their worst fears - stage four breast cancer. It had already spread.

"I did mi best," Wynter said, her voice cracking. "I was there when dem drain fluid off her lungs. Mi hold her during di procedure, read scripture over her and I was there."

In her final moments, Wynter made sure it was peaceful.

"We played worship music. We prayed. She was a minister of religion and those were the kinds of things she did for people. She pass early in the morning. When mi reach di hospital, mi couldn't wait. Mi pull di sheet offa her myself and mi see di peace inna her face. It do something to mi. Like she did smile."

Now, in an act of love, duty, and sheer courage, she will embalm her own mother just like her father did with JaJuan.

"That's the plan. Mi a go do di final dressing, di make-up, fix her hair... all a dat. That's my mommy and I want to ensure she get a classy, decent send-off."

Despite the immense grief, Wynter keeps showing up not just for the business, but for the memory of her mother and brother.

"I'm living for them now and knowing that they were proud of me gives me faith and pushes me to do better so I keep going," she said. "Don't leave out God. Yes, it hard, yes, you a go break down. But He knows why, and Him nah give you more than you can bear."

Campbell was 53 and considered a community mother. Wynter said that her mother once housed pregnant girls and helped send many to school. Her funeral, much like JaJuan's, which saw over 20 hearses from funeral homes across Jamaica that support the family, is expected to be one of dignity and love.

As Wynter prepares her mother for her final journey, she clings to faith, memory, and legacy. And while she works upstairs, her heart remains downstairs waiting for that final, sacred goodbye.

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