 |
| Six-year old Javani |
“It was 94 students on roll up to yesterday; it’s now 93.”
The statement by principal Kerrol Lyons of Chester Primary School in St Ann reflected the deep sense of loss being experienced by the entire Chester community after the death of six-year-old grade-one student Javani Bailey.
“A little girl here, she was playing ‘Mama Lashie’ with Javani. She says she still feels like she’s playing with him,” Lyons said in summing up the mood at the school.
Javani died on Tuesday October 11 after a goalpost he and other children were playing with fell on his head. It was a cruel blow for the woman who lost her mother just five months ago. It was made worse by the fact Six-year old Javani that she had initially decided not to send Javani to school and, after leaving the house to go to Montego Bay in St James, turned back to get him and his nine-year-old sister ready for school.
“Mi say, ‘Papa (her pet name for Javani), yuh know mi nuh feel fi sen yuh go a school today’; an him say, ‘Mommy, since yuh nuh waa sen mi, nuh worry sen mi’,” she recalled.
The last words she heard from Javani, as she put him and his sister in a taxi, were “Mommy, later”.
Javani’s aunt, Merona Morgan, said she was at a friend’s shop when some children came and told her that Bajeo had died.
“So mi say, ‘How Bajeo fi dead an Bajeo up a yard?’ Because mi talk to him in the morning an him say him not going to school,” Morgan recalled.
Morgan, along with the principal and two friends, assisted by a female driver who lives in the community, rushed the child to the St Ann’s Bay Hospital.
Later, it was a friend who called Francis, while she was in Montego Bay, and told her that something was wrong. The message was that Javani fell and the goalpost hit him in his head. That got her extremely worried. But then her sister called with the news that she dreaded most.
Francis said she would remember mostly “the way how him loving to mi. If anything wrong with mi, him would say, ‘Mommy, nuh worry’. Him always kiss mi if mi a cry an’ say, ‘Mommy, nuh cry; nuh cry, Mommy, everything a go alright’.”
Javani died in his aunt’s arms on the way to hospital. When the vehicle reached Priory, she said she felt Javani take his last breath. He was pronounced dead minutes later at the hospital.
The statement by principal Kerrol Lyons of Chester Primary School in St Ann reflected the deep sense of loss being experienced by the entire Chester community after the death of six-year-old grade-one student Javani Bailey.
“A little girl here, she was playing ‘Mama Lashie’ with Javani. She says she still feels like she’s playing with him,” Lyons said in summing up the mood at the school.
Javani died on Tuesday October 11 after a goalpost he and other children were playing with fell on his head. It was a cruel blow for the woman who lost her mother just five months ago. It was made worse by the fact Six-year old Javani that she had initially decided not to send Javani to school and, after leaving the house to go to Montego Bay in St James, turned back to get him and his nine-year-old sister ready for school.
“Mi say, ‘Papa (her pet name for Javani), yuh know mi nuh feel fi sen yuh go a school today’; an him say, ‘Mommy, since yuh nuh waa sen mi, nuh worry sen mi’,” she recalled.
The last words she heard from Javani, as she put him and his sister in a taxi, were “Mommy, later”.
Javani’s aunt, Merona Morgan, said she was at a friend’s shop when some children came and told her that Bajeo had died.
“So mi say, ‘How Bajeo fi dead an Bajeo up a yard?’ Because mi talk to him in the morning an him say him not going to school,” Morgan recalled.
Morgan, along with the principal and two friends, assisted by a female driver who lives in the community, rushed the child to the St Ann’s Bay Hospital.
Later, it was a friend who called Francis, while she was in Montego Bay, and told her that something was wrong. The message was that Javani fell and the goalpost hit him in his head. That got her extremely worried. But then her sister called with the news that she dreaded most.
Francis said she would remember mostly “the way how him loving to mi. If anything wrong with mi, him would say, ‘Mommy, nuh worry’. Him always kiss mi if mi a cry an’ say, ‘Mommy, nuh cry; nuh cry, Mommy, everything a go alright’.”
Javani died in his aunt’s arms on the way to hospital. When the vehicle reached Priory, she said she felt Javani take his last breath. He was pronounced dead minutes later at the hospital.
