- ADRIAN FRATER
Marjorie Rose, whose daughter Sharon Hunt-Spence, perished in the Christmas morning fiery crash in Scotts Cove, Westmoreland, stirs her pot while recounting her loss to The Gleaner in Petersfield yesterday.
Adrian Frater, News Editor
WESTERN BUREAU:
HER TEARS have dried up but her heart is still weeping.
Marjorie 'Cindi' Rose is still struggling to come to grips with the fiery Christmas morning accident along the Scotts Cove main road in Westmoreland, which claimed the lives of six persons, including her daughter, granddaughter and a cousin.
"Three of them one time is really tough to accept," said a weary-looking Mrs. Rose, as she stirred a pot on an open fire in the backyard of her Petersfield home in Westmoreland yesterday. "All now I feel like I am floating in the sky. It is like what happened at Scotts Cove is not real."
HARSH REALITY
However, a visit to the Bluefields Police Station some nine miles away from Mrs. Rose's home revealed the harsh reality of what transpired Christmas morning.
What is left of the car, which 42-year-old Alford Dawes was driving, shows the full impact of falling over a precipice and then bursting into flames. It was a mangled wreck minus all its non-metallic parts.
After seeing the burnt-out car, it is not difficult to understand why Rose's 38-year-old daughter Sharon Hunt-Spence, her eight-year-old granddaughter Tiffany Lewis, her two-year-old cousin Everisha Brown and family friends Dawes, his common-law wife, Mary Powell, 30, and two-year-old Alfred Dawes Jr. never survived the horrifying accident.
"When he (Dawes) told me about making the trip to St. Elizabeth, I warned him against travelling at that hour of the night," said Rose, who also recalled Dawes telling her that he was very tired as they plucked chickens at her home on Christmas Eve. "He said he had to make the trip because he did not want to upset Mary."
HOSPITALIZED
At daybreak on Christmas morning, Rose, who had not yet heard about the accident, called the three adults and although she did not get any response, she never took it to mean that something was wrong.
However, at about 11:00 a.m., she became quite curious when a male relative of Dawes and two policemen visited her home.
"They called my husband aside and was talking to him and I realised that something was wrong so I went over and enquired what had happened," said Rose.
She initially thought the six might have fallen prey to gunmen. "It was then that I learnt of the accident and that they were all dead."
Her cousin, Everton Brown, the father of Everisha, was trembling as he placed his elbows on a table and related to The Gleaner the impact the news his daughter's death had on him.
"I tumbled over and fainted," he said. "My pressure went up, I had to be hospitalised for two days."
The day before his daughter died, Brown said he spent $2,000 buying her pampers and other stuff to ensure she would be all right for the Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, prior to the ill-fated trip, he said he gave his cousin, Sharon (Hunt-Spence), $3,000 to buy toys for his daughter money she never got to spend.
DEVOTED CHRISTIAN
Since the tragedy, the members of Rose's church, the Petersfield Nazarene, who had cancelled their Christmas trip and rushed to comfort her when they heard of the sad news, have been a source of strength to her family. So are the other members of the community, who she said "are popping in and out all the time."
As Rose begins the difficult task of starting the preparation for the funeral of her three family members who will all be buried next week Saturday, she said she is not worried about the soul of her daughter, who she described as a born-again Christian, who had been faithful and true to her conviction.
"She was a devoted Christian who was not given to quarrel and loose living," said Mrs. Rose. "I am not worried for her soul because I know God will take care of her."
