St. Maarten Private Eye

From SMN News

Jean Luc Hamlet Succumbed to his Illness
---St. Martin has Lost a Great Son of the Soil

The Late Jean Luc Hamlet Giving His Last Interview To SMN News

Marigot: --- Executive Council member and former deputy mayor Jean Luc Hamlet passed way yesterday at 1:45 pm at the Louis Constant Fleming Hospital sending the island into a state of mourning. Hamlet fell ill last year just after swearing in as one of the executive council members of the New Collectivity.

He left the island for France for medical treatment where he was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer. Ever since then Hamlet was not getting better even though he had more than one operation to remove cancerous tumors. Hamlet was receiving treatment at St. Louis Hospital in Paris; he also stayed at the institute where he trained to become an anesthesiologist in Almeria.

Jean Luc Hamlet decided to come back to St. Martin when doctors in France told him there was nothing else they could do to preserve his life on earth, his sister Janine Hamlet told SMN News.

When Hamlet arrived at the Louis Constant Fleming hospital on Sunday many residents, friends and well wishers rushed to the hospital to wish him well. Doctors at the local hospital stopped the visits on Monday morning when they realized he was too tired to accommodate the amount of visitors that were rushing to see him. At 1:45 pm yesterday, exactly twenty four hours after coming back to his homeland he passed away peacefully. His body was taken to his home where many relatives, family, friends and colleagues gathered to spend the last moments prior to taking him to the funeral home at about 6pm in the afternoon.

Again when the news spread across the island many residents, family members as well as politicians and those of the New Collectivity including President Louis Constant Fleming gathered at the hospital getting a glimpse of the body of the man who served the community both at the hospital where he practiced his professional career and as a politician since he served as first deputy mayor under the leadership of Mayor Albert Fleming.

Jean Luc Hamlet 47 years old was the founder and leader of Demain St. Martin prior to him merging with Mayor Fleming in 2001. Last year Hamlet led the list Resusssir
St. Martin to contest the election of the COM. He won himself one seat in the territorial council but because of his expertise during the last six years he served a first deputy mayor and his knowledge on the files he was sworn in as one of the executive council members. Jean Luc Hamlet leaves to mourn his wife Marie George, four children, mother, father, brother radio talk show host Billy D, sisters and many nieces and nephews, his colleagues in the Collectivity as well at the Louis Constant Fleming Hospital. SMN News wishes the Hamlet family much strength during their bereavement as they mourn the loss of a man who was considered a true son of the soil.
The funeral of the late Jean Luc Hamlet would take place on Friday, his body will lie in State at the Collectivite from 12 noon, then taken to the church where the funeral service will commence.