By Muhammed S. Bah
On Friday 10 June 2016, Gambians from all works of life, men and women, young and old, bade farewell to George Vilheim Christensen, the veteran broadcast journalist and communication expert, who was finally laid to rest at the Christian Cemetery in Banjul.
George, as he was commonly called, passed away suddenly after his return from Dakar, Senegal, on 3 June 2016, in the presence of his loving wife, Mrs. Mary Samba Christensen, who went to pick him up around 7pm at the Banjul International Airport.
This communication engineer and broadcast journalist was the former proprietor of the first FM station in the Gambia, the Radio 1 FM, where he had mentored many young budding journalists who later became very active professionals in the field of journalism and working for either the government or private media, both at home and abroad.
The funeral was held at the residence of the late George Christensen in Fajara where he was laid in state for relatives, friends, colleagues and other symphatisers gathered to pay their last respects.
The coffin of the late George was later taken in a procession around 4pm to the Holy Family Church where the funeral service was held with the attendance of family, relatives, friends and former colleagues in the media fraternity, including some members of the Gambia Press Union (GPU) executive, the permanent secretary and deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of Information, Communication and Infrastructure (MOICI), among others.
Following the religious service, the coffin was then escorted around 6pm by a very large crowd to Banjul for burial at his final resting place.
George, who was born on 17th September 1951 to Eric Herbert Christensen and Diana Baker-Christensen, died at the age of 64 years and is survived by two daughters and four sons.
He will be missed not only by his wife and children but all those who had been relating to him at both the personal and professional levels, particularly the media practitioners in the Gambia and abroad.
