By Neil Marks
THE remaining 10 of the 11 people brutally gunned down by a rampaging gang at Lusignan last Saturday will either be cremated or buried today at Good Hope, also on East Coast Demerara, on a day of national mourning.

Separate funeral services are to be held at four neighbouring homes for those whose lives were snatched away in the act of terror that still has the nation reeling.

Those closest to the deceased are still trying to find strength even as they still continue to beg the question: “Why?”

Yesterday, Rajkumar Harilall sat contemplating at the door the gunmen kicked open and shot dead his wife and two sons. He has been in the same mood since he returned from Trinidad where he had gone in search of “a better life” for his family.

News of the slaying caused him to rush back home and, since then, his life has become empty. How he will move on is a question he does not even want to answer.

His wife, Mohandai Gourdat and their sons, four-year-old Seegobind and Seegopaul, 10, will be burnt at the Good Hope crematorium after noon.

Obliquely opposite their house, the terrorists, in their house-to-house slaughter, cloaked the remainder of the Thomas household in similar anguish.

Clarence Thomas, 42, his daughter Vanessa and his son, Ron, 11, were all shot dead as his wife, Gomattie hid safely behind a curtain.

The 47-year-old widow said she leaves her fate to God, indicating that the Almighty has given her courage during this time.

With friends and family at her side yesterday, she remembered the good times with her children and husband, as she prepared to say final goodbyes to them.

Just a few doors away from her, sugar worker Rooplall Seecharran, 56, his wife, Dhanrajie Ramsingh, 52, together with their daughter, Raywattie, 11, suffered death simultaneously.

They, too, will be objects of cremation at Good Hope.

The brazen shooters also killed Shaleem Baksh, 55, right before the eyes of his wife and daughter who scrambled for refuge under their bed.

Baksh will be interred after a service according to Muslim rites.

The tiny track where the 10 lived would be impossible to accommodate the sea of relatives, friends and sympathisers expected to bid them farewell.

The bodies of the dead are expected to be laid on the forecourt of CARICOM Auto Sales on Lusignan Public Road for viewing before interment.

Shazam Mohamed, also killed in the Saturday massacre, was laid to rest on Tuesday.