Latest update November 8th, 2024 12:14 AM
Avenue victim faces tough times
Widow of Homestretch
Joy Ann Duncan still imagines that she hears her husband’s familiar rap at her front door and actually jumps out of bed sometimes to open for him.
But in her heart, she knows that Junior Duncan is never coming home. He was one of the five killed last July 18 when a speeding minibus overturned on Homestretch Avenue.
He was still clutching some money in his hands and Joy Ann says she was told that moments before the accident her husband was attempting to stop the minibus and pay the driver because he was speeding.
She says that his death has left a major gap in her life and that of their four children ages, 20, 13, 10 and seven.
The couple was in the middle of constructing their home when tragedy struck.
Single mother of four Joy Ann Duncan who lost her husband in the horrific Homestretch Avenue accident.
Now construction on the home has been stalled while Mrs. Duncan and her four children remain in their little shack aback of their yard.
Completion of the structure now seems impossible, and Mrs. Duncan is also now struggling to find the children’s books and uniforms for the approaching school term.
With tears trickling down her face, Joy Ann said her husband was the provider for the home and a very loving father to their children. She explained that life for the family was much easier as she was able to provide her children with some amount of luxury.
Joy Ann said she would also bake pastries and do orders for weddings and birthday cakes which would supplement her husband’s income. However, since his death she said she has had to go into the business full time to maintain her children and home.
“The same time he died I had a wedding cake to do but I couldn’t (complete it). I was too shaken up but the couple eventually got their wedding cake while I had to deal with my husband’s funeral”.
While the cake and pastry business is providing her with some necessities, Mrs. Daniels says she is gearing up for tougher times as she anticipates this when school reopens.
“I will have to find transportation money every day, and other expenses that come along with school…but I’m hoping to go large scale with the pastry business but I need bigger equipment…I have to finish my house my husband wanted this house for our children.”
Meanwhile, Joy Ann said her husband’s death has taken a toll on her children which is adding to her grief.
“Having to see them just lazing around the house daily and when you ask what is the matter they say we miss daddy is nothing easy.”
Nightfall is the time she dreads the most.
“I hate looking at the clock. I can’t stand night fall these days, my nights are longer than usual. He is not here with us. We are no longer a family because of a minibus driver,” Joy Ann lamented.
The now single mother of four says she spends most of her nights drowning herself in tears and at times jumping out of bed at the sound of her husband rapping at the door.
“I know I’m not losing my sanity; it just a phase. I miss him; he was really loving to our children…now I’m left alone with my children.”
Mrs. Duncan’s incomplete house which she and her husband were in the process of building.
Nevertheless, Joy Ann acknowledges the fact that life must go on and she will eventually pick up the pieces for the sake of her children. She says she has found that being in contact with the relatives of those who lost relatives in the accident has helped her somewhat. In addition, she said she was grateful for a visit by the owner of the minibus her husband was in when he was killed.
“The owner is in no way responsible…and she was kind enough to pay us a visit but as it relates to the driver, I have never heard from him.”
Joy Ann says she plans to go to the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on the next sitting of the court case to see the man accused of causing her husband’s death.
“I just want to look into his eyes …that would give me some satisfaction and God will do the rest.”
On July 18 last, Junior Duncan, Coretta Benjamin, of Lot 704 B Field Sophia; her eight-year-old daughter, Crazel Paul, Peter Mc Lennon 29, of Sophia and Erica La Cruiz, 18, of Sophia, died after a minibus crashed. According to reports, the minibus suffered a blow out while speeding along Homestretch Avenue. Several other persons were injured in the accident. The driver of the minibus which operated Stabroek/Sophia, Jermaine Jackson has since been remanded to prison after being charged with causing death by dangerous driving.
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