‘She was an angel’: Family struggles to pay for grandmother’s funeral after Blue Lagoon boating incident

The family of 75-year-old Gayle Jarrett, the woman who died in a boat mishap in the Bahamas last week, is in a financial struggle as they prepare to bury her.

Granddaughter Kayla Estep says the family is struggling to find the resources to bury Jarrett.

Estep who accompanied her on the Blue Lagoon excursion boat with seven other family members before it sank in waters just thirty minutes after departure, organized a GoFundMe, hoping to raise $2000 for the burial.

“As of right now, this is a financial struggle for us all.

“My grandma wanted to be buried in Missouri with her parents. However we are from Colorado and would like to do the funeral in Montana but [we] also would like to have a memorial in Colorado for those that can’t make it to Missouri,” Estep said.

Jarrett described as benevolent, had used her inheritance money to take the family on a five-day cruise aboard Royal Caribbean, and Nassau was only her second stop before the tragedy.

“She was giving, she gave and gave and gave.”

Jarrett, wearing an oxygen tank, was also the only passenger who died among the 119 others scrambling as the boat tilted in the choppy seas and eventually sunk before passengers were rescued.

“She was basically an angel on Earth. She had the biggest heart.

“She believed in God like no other.”

Estep said Jarrett was like a second mother and a best friend.

“Her and I just loved shopping together, that was one of our favorite things to do together.”

They were originally supposed to get on a different boat, but that one was too full for their family.

According to Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander, the autopsy report revealed her death was not due to drowning but some other situation not explained.

Her husband, also on the ferry, was seen weeping over her body.

The family said the accident was preventable. Blue Lagoon said it is undertaking a “rigorous investigation.”