An aspiring entrepreneur’s last day on earth

Nov 23, 2020 News

…Snatched away during a ‘road trip’

By Shervin Belgrave

Kaieteur News – “I can still hear his voice echoing in my ears…it’s like I am still expecting him to walk through that door with a smile on his face.” These were the words of Anita Crawford who had the heart-breaking task to identify her little brother’s maimed body in a morgue. This, as was previously reported, happened three days after he had gone on a road trip.
Kellon Crawford, 22, who resided at Annandale, East Coast Demerara (ECD) was reportedly killed instantly sometime after 23:00hrs on November 1, 2020 by a speeding motorcar on the Annandale public road.

Kellon Crawford now resides in the Great Beyond.

According to reports, he had just hopped off his bicycle and was almost across the road when a blue Toyota Spacio struck him down.
But who was Kellon in society to make him eligible for recognition posthumously? Of course his name is now filed among the country’s road fatalities statistics, but like many others in this category, he was another human being who took the good with the bad and made the best out of his existence.
Those who knew him well will tell you that despite hardships, Kellon always found a way to be happy. His sister, Anita, recently used words like “sweet” and “dreamer” to describe him. According to her, “he wanted to be an entrepreneur and spoke repeatedly of owning a game shop.”
Kellon, she revealed, was the youngest of four siblings and was considered the baby of the family. “He was everyone’s play toy,” his sister mused. As she reflected on his life, she did not hesitate to emphasize that “he was not born with a gold spoon in his mouth”.
“Our family had its hardships and struggles with finance but mom did her best to educate us all including the little one (Kellon),” Anita said matter-of-factly.
However, she continued, things did turn from bad to worse forcing Kellon to drop out of school while in Fourth Form. “Mom couldn’t afford it,” Anita recalled.
Despite this set back, she said that Kellon had great plans for the future and didn’t let the obstacles prevent him from living a contented and happy life.
“He became employed with Rico Juice Company and began working towards becoming a successful businessman,” she said. According to her, he had convinced himself that through successful entrepreneurship he would be able to lift his family and himself out of poverty.
At the age of 20, their parents had decided to separate but as impacting as this was, it didn’t stop Kellon from pursuing his goals.
By this time, he was living at his sister’s home and spent lots of his time taking care of his little niece and household chores. During his free time, Anita said, he surrounded himself with friends.
“Kellon had lots of friends, they loved him, he was such a good person to have around with a ‘bubbily’ character,” she said, adding “when it comes to girlfriends he was a charmer, he had plenty but always had his mind focused on his goals.”
As Anita continued her tale, her voice took on a somber tone. “God probably had other plans for him and took him home, but what hurts is that he never got to say goodbye before leaving,” said a grief-stricken Anita.
THE FINAL ROAD TRIP
On the morning of Sunday November 1, 2020, Kellon was at home relaxing. As the hands on the clock approached 11:00hrs, his cellphone rang.
“It was one of his friends inviting him to go out,” Anita recalled.
“At first he was reluctant to go but his friend kept on bugging him until he said okay,” she continued.
The friend, his sister recalled, picked him up in a taxi and took him to a nearby village to lime. Sometime later that day he visited his brother who was at the time working at a wash bay to uplift his bicycle.
Anita said that it was at this point that he decided to go on a “road trip” to visit some other friends and rode off.
“I was told that he made stops at each one of his friends’ home that afternoon to spend time, gaff and play video games,” the sister shared.
His last stop, she added, was at a friend who lives at Good Hope. Kellon reportedly decided to end his road trip there and head home at around 23:00hrs.
Someone notified Anita that while on his way home, Kellon had stopped to witness an accident scene. A driver had struck down a 14-year-old boy in the Annandale area and fled.
Little did he know that his fate would be similar.
After a day of adventure and excitement, Kellon never made it home. To his family, who quickly became worried about his whereabouts, it seemed as though he simply vanished.
At first, his sister said, they weren’t worried because sometimes he would sleep over at friends or come home late. But he was scheduled to return to work the following day, so when he did not show up, they understandably became worried.
Calls were made to his cellphones but these all went to voicemail. Contact was made with his friends but they too had not seen him since Sunday.
“I remember mom becoming frustrated and was repeatedly saying ‘this is not Kellon, no this is not Kellon; where is he, I need to go find him’,” Anita said, “She (mom) began searching but the police were hesitant in assisting. One of her church sisters then advised to check with the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).”
Anita remembered her mother asking why, and to this the ‘sister’ disclosed that there were two accidents the previous night.
“I did not want to believe that my little brother got into an accident and my mother did not want to either, but she went anyway,” Anita recalled.
Kellon’s mother got up early on the morning of Wednesday, November 4, 2020, she dressed, placed a photo of him in her bag and headed to the GPHC.
“I can only imagine how she must have responded when one of the staff told her ‘yes this guy came in here but he was dead and we took him to Lyken’s Funeral Home,” said Anita. She paused for a bit, took a deep breath and said, “Little brother went home without saying goodbye.”
Kellon’s mother later confirmed with police that her son was a victim of the second road accident which took place on that fateful Sunday night – November 1, 2020.
A captivating headline in the Guyana Times newspaper the following day read, “Mother finds missing son in GPHC morgue.”
An eyewitness who was at the scene when Kellon was struck down, read the article and located his family. He provided them with photographs and videos of his final moments.
“We were told that my brother was almost across the road when the car hit him,” said Anita.
Kellon was reportedly flung into the air and landed on the car’s bonnet before being thrown on to the roadway. The driver then lost control of the vehicle which came to a halt in a nearby trench.
Sprawled in a pool of his own blood, Kellon was soon after pronounced dead. The driver of the car was taken into police custody but was subsequently released on bail.
Even as his family continues to mourn his passing, police investigators await advice on possible charges for the driver who was behind the wheel of the car that facilitated Kellon’s departure to the great beyond.