A True Jamaican Patriot Rojon Campbell

From con­trib­u­tor Chris Porter.

A true Jamaican patri­ot lost his life doing what he loved, fly­ing a plane in the skies of Jamaica:
The late Rojorn Campbell was like fam­i­ly to me, a nephew and a mem­ber of my imme­di­ate fam­i­ly from birth. I knew him from birth when his par­ents were liv­ing at Eltham Park, Spanish Town, St. Catherine and I was liv­ing on the oth­er side of the hous­ing scheme.

His moth­er (Fredricka Campbell) and I grew up in the same home when I was going to high school in Jamaica, with her moth­er the late Mrs. Pearl Antonio, two broth­ers, one sis­ter, and nieces. You could not tell that I am not relat­ed to them by blood. They treat­ed me with uncon­di­tion­al love, respect, and most of all like family.

Little did I know that on September 2, 2014, at about 3:00 PM was the last time I would see Rojorn Campbell alive. My heart is heavy, sad, and I feel so emp­ty inside know­ing that I will not see him again in the flesh. A lot of Jamaicans love to call our­selves patri­ots, but we do not know or under­stand and prac­tice being a “Jamaican-Patriot!” The late Rojorn Campbell was a true Jamaican-Patriot who loves, sup­port­ed, and defend­ed his coun­try and its inter­ests with devo­tion. He regard­ed him­self as a defend­er, espe­cial­ly of sov­er­eign rights, against pre­sumed inter­fer­ence by out­siders of Jamaica.

Normally, I do not write about oth­ers who have depart­ed this earth, but I must do so as a fam­i­ly of the Campbell’s and Antonio’s fam­i­ly because I can empathize with them in some ways but not ful­ly because he was not my son. Parents, sib­lings, spouse, child(ren) loss pain is dif­fer­ent from others.
All I can say is that I am so proud of him and the lives he has touched on this earth and there is a good say­ing that “good peo­ple” die young because God does not want them to get infect­ed by the cor­rup­tors! In the pho­tographs of Rojorn and me sit­ting in my liv­ing room talk­ing for hours about what is next move should or going to be for the future was a very inter­est­ing time in his life.

He shared all his accom­plish­ment and life­long dreams of becom­ing a pilot and got his cer­ti­fi­ca­tion to soar the skies.
During our con­ver­sa­tion, I tried to con­vince him not to go back to Jamaica, I gave him sev­er­al rea­sons why he should remain in the United States of America and join the “Air Force,” and his life would be much bet­ter than going back to Jamaica.

He was extreme­ly fix­at­ed on going back to Jamaica the moth­er of his child and his lit­tle daugh­ter whom he called “Kiki.”
Nothing that I said to him touched a cord in the brain to recon­sid­er my sug­ges­tions or mat­ter what I was say­ing because it didn’t mat­ter to him, Jamaica is where his heart was.
Rojorn want­ed to go back to Jamaica where his heart was. He thought going back to his home­land would enable him to con­tribute to his coun­try where he has got­ten his first taste of edu­ca­tion. He want­ed to give back to Jamaica and moti­vate oth­ers to inspire oth­ers to dream big like him­self. To be frank, I wish that he had lis­tened to me, but des­tiny and faith would ful­fill his plans of soar­ing in the skies of Jamaica.

Last week when I heard that he died, a piece of me died, know­ing that he was a part of me from birth, watch­ing him become his own man and a father and sub­se­quent­ly a hus­band. I nev­er met or knew his wife, but I know that the pain must be insur­mount­able, throb­bing, aching, and in despair as a young woman to lose her hus­band less than three weeks after they’d tied the knot.
On my cell phone, we have a group chat called “Positive Thinkers!” Most of the mem­bers are for­mer mem­bers of the Jamaican Constabulary Force, Members of var­i­ous United States police depart­ments, Jamaican/​Americans who were in the mil­i­tary and are serv­ing in law enforce­ment here and even a neu­rol­o­gist, Rojorn Campbell was a part of this group from its incep­tion. Since his death, I haven’t mus­tered the ener­gy, strength, or forte to share with its mem­bers that he is no longer with us.

Even his father Everton Campbell is a mem­ber of our group, that’s how close they were to each oth­er that they would be shar­ing their thoughts at times. Our group dis­cuss­es var­i­ous issues which affect us as peo­ple world­wide, espe­cial­ly crimes in Jamaica and the solu­tions to the prob­lems there.
Rojorn remind­ed me that he was in-love with Jamaica (A patri­ot) and at one time of my life, that was the way I felt too.
He remind­ed me that I went to the Jamaica Police Academy at a ten­der age as a police cadet and when I grad­u­at­ed, I was the youngest police offi­cer in my batch.

My sin­cere con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly: Mother Fredricka Campbell “Ricka, Freddy and father Everton Campbell “Ever” who has impart­ed so many traits and life lessons that there is no space to write them.
Joel Douglas, coach, his big broth­er his lit­tle broth­er Jordan Campbell and only sis­ter whom he always boasts about being the super­star in the fam­i­ly Deja Campbell, they were is every­thing and if they’re hurt­ing the feel­ing would be the same for him. Kiki, his lit­tle daugh­ter, was his world, pride, and joy; he loves her world with­out end and would give his life for her.

She is the main rea­son why he want­ed to go back to Jamaica; he did not want her to grow up in America because of the cul­tur­al shift from decen­cy, God, and bla­tant lying espe­cial­ly from a Blackman: Barrack Obama.
His uncles: Lambert, Timothy, and Calvin Antonio and his aunt Vendolyn Antonio and cousins…the Campbell’s clan that the father is from and their pain is over­whelm­ing. None of us can empathize or under­stand what his fam­i­ly is going through at this time. But I do know a friend, who is a for­mer mem­ber of the Jamaican Constabulary Force: Detective Corporal Mike Beckles who’ve loss his son under trag­ic cir­cum­stances and he can give some point­ers to the fam­i­ly how to cope with their loss!

The late Rojorn Campbell was a true Jamaican patri­ot, and he has giv­en his life serv­ing his coun­try in a capac­i­ty as a pilot and some­thing that he loved. I know that the mem­o­ries of him will for­ev­er etch in our brains and noth­ing can erase it. He was giant in his own right, all will tru­ly miss him. Keep soar­ing the skies Rojorn and keep your eyes down on us here on the ground.