Obituary

Pamela Emeline Cuke (lovingly known as Pamey) is remembered for her unconditional love, kindness, and giving nature. Pamey migrated to the United States in 1975 leaving her beautiful island home of Barbados. Pamey was a determined worker with an entrepreneurial spirit from her early years. In Barbados, she worked in a variety of jobs from the manufacturing of cocoa to retail. Pamela was a woman of faith and courage, who migrated to America to make life better for her and her family and to seek life-saving medical care for her youngest daughter. Upon her arrival in New York, she began to work as a Nurse’s Aide for a family on Long Island. From this humble beginning, she went on to be a successful entrepreneur.

In her early years in New York, she worked for an extensive time at Duane Read Pharmacy. However, her keen drive and business acumen led her to many successful initiatives, her most rewarding being investments in real estate. Her most successful venture was purchasing a four-story brownstone building at 558 Gates Avenue, Brooklyn, NY at an auction for $10,000. Despite many obstacles and challenges, she became a successful landlord having renovated the building from a burnt-out shell to a valuable property in the heart of Brooklyn, that the family knew as Gates! With her keen business insight, she was able to provide financial help and lodging to many members of her family and friends. Pamey was an elegant, intelligent, generous person who was an integral part of her Bedford- Stuyvesant community. She was a woman of God, who opened her home to the needy and often provided refreshments and lodging to all who were in need. Her passion for servant leadership was also expressed as she served as a deaconess for many years at the Cornerstone SDA church. Pamela was a woman of quiet strength and her greatest joy in life was to be surrounded by her loving family and many friends who were ever present at Gates, sharing countless moments of joy, laughter, and love.

She managed the building (Gates) for over 20 years until she retired to Queens, NY in 2013 where she lived the remainder of her life in the loving care of her eldest daughter Stephanie Grant. She was truly the matriarch of the family; Pamela was looked up to and respected by her family and friends. Pamela was predeceased by her husband Cecil Albert Cuke, her mother Gwendolyn Rock, and her grandson Ronald Goodridge. She leaves to morn her passing, her nine children: Grantly Goodridge, Hendon Goodridge, Tyrone Goodridge, Stephanie Goodridge, Christopher Goodridge, David Cuke, Dawn Creft, Monica Cuke, and Dorothy Harper; her sister Omega Goodridge, nephew John Goodridge and niece Betty-Ann Howell; 29 grandchildren, 34 great- grandchildren, and 3 great-great-grandchildren, her faithful friend Marcia Austin, in addition to a large extended family and many friends who will forever miss her.