Relatives remember loved ones lost in 2015

Jan 04, 2016 News

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By: Romila Boodram
While 2015 might have been 52 wild and wacky weeks of fun, comedy and laughter for some of us, it was a tough year for a few, who would have lost their loved ones in the most painful and tragic way one can imagine.
There were people who lost their lives in road accidents, there were some who died by drowning and there were others who were brutally murdered.
Kaieteur News spoke with the relatives of a few persons who died tragically last year.

Lured to his death…
For one man, 2016 would have been the year for him to enjoy his life. Having worked all his life to raise his three daughters and complete his family home in Berbice, money-changer Fizal Mahmood Baksh had planned on traveling to several countries.
However, the 56-year-old father was brutally killed just a few days before the Christmas Holiday.
It is believed that the money-changer was lured to his death by a teenager, who disappeared the same day Mahmood went missing.
The man’s battered body was found on Christmas Eve Day on the foreshore at Number 63 Village, Corentyne – three days after he went missing.

He was fully clothed and the back of his skull had been fractured in two places. There was also a wound on one of his legs. The police are yet to make an arrest.
The man’s daughter, Safrana Baksh said that the holiday season was the most difficult and painful time for her family with the death of her father.
According to Baksh, her father had planned on applying for a US Visa so that he could visit the United States of America and several other countries.
“All the time he was working, so it was finally time for him to have some enjoyment in his life but then this happened,” the daughter lamented.
The devastated woman said that her father had planned on having a barbeque on New Year’s Day, with all his children and grandchildren but, that plan fell apart.
“He was a very quiet person and always the peaceful one. He never liked fighting and quarreling, he does always try to make peace,” Safrana described.
She said that his death came as a total shock for the family especially since her father was the one who made all the plans for the holiday.
“We didn’t even know that Christmas come and gone,” the woman lamented.

Killed on his way home
When 50-year-old Youghraj Singh kissed his wife before leaving home on December 09, last, she had no idea that would have been the last time she would be seeing him alive.
He left home to go and deliver sand on the East Coast Demerara (ECD) but while returning home to his wife and children, the father of two reportedly lost control of his vehicle and collided with a utility pole.
Singh was later pronounced dead at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
In an interview, his devastated widow, Patricia Singh said that the day her husband died, a part of her went with him.
“We didn’t have a holiday. I lost part of my life. Every day I questioned myself and ask God, why he took my husband away,” the mother of Singh’s two children said in tears.

According to Patricia, in the past, whenever her partner had sand to deliver, she or one of her children would usually accompany him to his customer just to keep him occupied.
“If he gets an order, he does go to the sand pit and when he passing down, he would call and tell me to ready and come out and he would pass and pick me up,” the woman recalled.
On the day Singh died, Patricia recounted making him tea. “He didn’t eat and when he was getting ready to leave, I tell him that I wouldn’t go with him and he said ‘alright’ in a quiet tone and then he leave.”
She later received a call that he was involved in an accident. When the woman and her children turned up at the hospital, he was already dead.
Patricia said that her husband had a lot of plans for 2016, one of which included purchasing a car for the family- in fact, he had already started saving towards the purchase.

Strangled to death…
She was a peaceful and quiet woman; a loving and caring mother and grandmother but on August 01, 2015, this kindhearted woman, Carmen Ganesh, 77, was gone.
She was choked, kicked and stomped to death in a house at Montrose, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
Her killer was subsequently arrested and charged.

The woman’s daughter, Sandra Ganesh in an interview recalled seeing her mother just the day before she met her tragic death.
“I know she had to die but not like this. I can’t imagine someone being so cruel to her,” the woman lamented while adding that everyone misses her.
The younger Ganesh explained that her mother had been taking care of the property (in which she was killed) for many years and lived alone but relatives would usually visit her daily.
“Every morning I would usually pass and call out for her. Now, there is no one to call,” Sandra lamented.
She said for the New Year, her mother was supposed to move into her own home. “She was getting old, so like she didn’t able climb the steps. So I build up my downstairs for her to move in and stay by me and I told her that I would cook for her.”
On Christmas Day, Carmen Ganesh’s children and grandchildren would usually visit her and sometimes, she would visit them.
“Normally everyone would buy something and take it to her and spend some time and then she does come over by me and eat,” Sandra lamented.
Carmen Ganesh leaves to mourn her six children and 11 grandchildren.

On December 02, last, six-year-old Daniel Adolphus mysteriously disappeared from his Richmond Housing Scheme, Essequibo home.

To date, the police and relatives have looked everywhere but were unable to locate the child.
The little boy’s parents were forced to welcome 2016 without him by their sides.

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