The story of a re-migrant who was haunted by death

Aug 23, 2020 Features / Columnists, News

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A nightmare that became reality…

By Shervin Belgrave

Since his return, Zameer Isffenhani, a re-migrant from neighbouring Venezuela, had been working tirelessly to fulfil his dreams of a better life for his family. But there were many nights when those dreams turned into nightmares.
His daily job reminded him of his worst fears and painted tragic scenes in his mind. He understandably had many sleepless nights. Nevertheless, he tried to brush off those horrible nightmares and continued working because it was the only way of surviving and providing for the ones he loved. He motivated himself each day by having a mindset that these horrible thoughts would never come to pass.
However, on his son’s birthday, August 5, 2020, his nightmare became a reality in the most horrific of ways. Isffenhani met what some have termed an untimely demise when he was crushed by a speeding canter which slammed into the back of a parked garbage truck on the Montrose, East Coast Demerara (ECD) public road.
ADAPTABLE
Born on August 22, 1974 at Zeelugt, West Coast Demerara, Isffenhani left the shores of Guyana with his parents at the early age of 14 for Venezuela. Life was not the best in Guyana during the 1980s so his parents Lalit and Chandra decided to move to the neighbouring country.
At the age of 20 he met a fellow Guyanese migrant, Natifa Khan, in San Felix. The two became friends and eventually fell madly in love with each

other. They soon were married and were ready to start a family of their own. Their union produced five beautiful children who adored their dad for his dedication towards them and their mom.
“Zameer was always hard-working and his main objective was to take care of us all,” said the now widowed Natifa.
Throughout the good years in Venezuela, she recalled, Isffenhani worked as a salesman for an Ice-Cream Company. He was very successful and built a posh house for them. Despite the success, Isffenhani found himself following in the footsteps of his father to return to Guyana. Dark days had engulfed Venezuela and, like his father, he was eventually forced to uproot his family and leave everything behind. This all went down in the year 2017.
But according to Natifa, “returning to Guyana was very rough. Zameer was our motivation, he had dreams of success and even planned on building a new house on a land his grandfather had given him.”
Upon their return, Isffenhani and his family settled at Leonora, West Coast Demerara. But just like many migrants and re-migrants, finding a job for Isffenhani was especially difficult. In his bid to help sustain his family, Isffenhani was eventually able to secure a job with Puran Bros. Limited

as a garbage collector earning $3,300 per day.
At first, Isffenhani, according to his wife, had no qualms about the role he had to play as a garbage collector, but then things began to change.
INGRAINED FEAR
“Zameer came home one day and said, ‘Nati this work that I am doing is very dangerous and it is giving me nightmares’,” recalled Natifa.
Her husband’s co-workers had often told him about employees who died tragically while working behind a garbage truck. They told grotesque tales of colleagues falling from garbage trucks and being crushed to death. He also heard of horrific crashes, which saw vehicles like magnet, dangerously colliding with garbage trucks.
These stories haunted Isffenhani and eventually he started having eerily specific nightmares of a number of injurious things that could happen to him while on the job.
“Many days he would discuss his fears with me and I would tell him, ‘boy you have to get rid of those negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones, nothing will happen to you; soon you will find a better job’,” Natifa often assured Isffenhani.
By mustering up a great deal of courage and often reminding himself that he was his family’s breadwinner, he was eventually able to conquer his fear. Well, at least so Natifa thought.
“Every day he would bring home sweet meats and tasty snacks for his children,” Natifa remembered. As she sifted through immortalised memories of her husband; several that can make her smile on an ‘off-day’, she recalled, “we developed a habit of sharing the same cup of coffee in the mornings and discussing our children’s future.”
“Zameer was always positive, he placed his fears aside and spoke of a bright future and was always playful and jovial. He joked around a lot and loved watching movies with the kids, and, oh boy! he loved to dance. But the apple of his eyes was his daughters,” said Natifa as she re-lived her cherished moments with Isffenhani.
Her voice and countenance changed as she recollected her last moments with her beloved husband.
“It was August and we were making plans for a big birthday celebration, Zameer was preparing for another milestone on August 22, not only was he excited, but as is customary in our family this day would have been a mega celebration for the entire family since his eldest son and daughter were born in August as well,” Natifa said.
But the exciting plans were soon dashed when word came to the family that Isffenhani’s worst nightmare had in fact come true.
ANGUISH
With immense anguish, Natifa remembered the last night she spent with her husband. It was August 4, last and she recalled that “He came home from work and his daughter ran to greet him. She asked him: ‘whose food will you eat tonight?’ She told him that she prepared him soup and that I prepared him fish curry. Not wanting to disappoint his daughter he responded: ‘I want soup’. He ate the soup, showered and left for his room and not long after he called for fish curry; he ate that too,” Natifa said as an involuntary smile formed on her face.
After ensuring that her husband was well fed, Natifa then tidied up the house and retired to bed with him. “While lying on the bed with him, he gaffed with me and told me about the house he was planning to build for us. He soon grew tired and fell asleep,” she recalled.
The following morning at around 04:00hrs, Isffenhani woke up, made coffee, drank some and carried some for his wife, who was still in bed, before leaving for work.
Natifa remembered running down the stairs to kiss him goodbye but by the time she arrived he was already entering a bus on the public road. She smiled and returned to bed.
But as fate would have it, a few hours later she received a phone call that drove her to tears. A co-worker had called to notify her that Isffenhani was involved in an accident and had died.
That tragic morning, his son’s 24th birthday, at around 05:30hrs, a canter truck crashed into the rear end of the garbage truck on which Isffenhani was performing his duties. He was crushed in the process and died instantly.
Natifa has no desire of keeping alive the memory of that tragic day when her husband’s worst fears became a reality. She would much rather remember the superb person he was and the many outstanding things he did to show how much he cared.
Although still grieving the loss of her husband, Natifa chooses to stand strong and has taken over Isffenhani’s position as the breadwinner of the family. Her children too have promised to support their mother in the quest to achieve the plans that Isffenhani had envisioned for them.

 

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