Jaya Fernando: School friends carry coffin and sing anthem at funeral of Bishop’s Stortford family man and cricketer who died at 56

Six old school friends of Bishop’s Stortford family man and keen cricketer Jaya Fernando carried his coffin into St Joseph’s Catholic Church for his funeral on Monday (Sept 30).

Wearing their school ties and with the coffin draped in the flag of St Benedict’s College in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where they had all met and formed lifelong friendships, they came to pay their last respects, ending the service with a rendition of the school anthem.

Around 150 family and friends were at the church in Windhill for the midday service to commemorate the life of the 56-year-old Sri Lankan-born married father-of-three, who suffered a heart attack while playing for Bishop’s Stortford in his first match this summer at Cricketfield Lane on Sunday September 1.

He died 12 days later in the specialist cardiac unit at Basildon Hospital with his wife, Maria, at his side – just three days after marking their 21st wedding anniversary with a kiss from his hospital bed.

Maria, 44, said the service was a surreal coming together of “every aspect of his life”.

She thanked everyone who had contributed to the Indie’s GoFundMe.com appeal to cover the £4,500 cost of the funeral, conducted by Hockerill funeral director Barringtons, which has so far raised £2,180.

A separate GoFundMe appeal set up by Maria’s friend Sarah Tilstone to support the family has raised £17,455. Maria faces having to sell the family home in Cavell Drive, near as Jaya had no life insurance and the mortgage was in his name,

“I’m so amazed by the appeals and the support we’ve received,” said Maria.

“I’m still getting messages from people, random people I’ve never met who have reached out, which is unbelievable and I am so grateful. I’m never leaving this place!” she said of Stortford, where the family have lived for 15 years.

“People came to the funeral from the cricket club, all wearing their club blazers, and from Sawbridgeworth and Stansted Hall & Elsenham clubs as well, there were people from his work at Stansted Airport, people from my work, all his old university friends from when we first met and people we’ve got to know over the years.

“It was all our worlds colliding under one roof and it was quite surreal seeing people we used to know years ago – his mates, every aspect of his life all together.”

The couple’s three children – Krishan, 14, Amaya, 11, and Sachin, 7 – attended with their friends as support while Jaya’s parents in Sri Lanka, his two sisters and other close family watched via a live-streaming service.

The service was conducted by Father Peter Harris and assisted by Deacon Eric, a St Benedict’s alumnus who had heard of Jaya’s passing and wanted to pay his respects.

There was no wake, but people gathered afterwards at Bishop’s Stortford Cricket Club, where Maria got the chance to catch up with friends and family.

She read the eulogy and paid tribute to her sociable and easy-going husband, “who was so much more than cricket”.