Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

June Lawrence sits close to the spot where she found the bodies of her two murdered sons on January 12. - Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer

The gloomy rain clouds hovering over Central Village in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, yesterday morning seemed to mimic June Lawrence's mood as she walked slowly toward a metal chair on the dusty road outside her home. She sat down and sighed. Her eyes were droopy and her face showed signs of exhaustion.

Within the space of 10 minutes on January 12, two of the 52-year-old woman's sons were killed in an ongoing gang war in the community. But they weren't the first of her children to have been murdered. On April 11, 2004, her first-born son was shot and killed by men from a rival neighbourhood.

Packing her bags

Now, after 34 years of living at Big Lane in Central Village, June Lawrence is packing her bags and moving out. "They take away everything. I don't have anything else. I can't stay here any longer," she whispered with tears running down her cheeks.

She seemed to struggle with the memory of the morning her two sons, Orlando, 23, and Dane, 26, were killed.

"It was about 2:30 in the morning. Some people wake me up and tell me dat Orlando house a burn down. Mi jump up and run over deh with some other people and we try to put some water on the fire. When we there, we hear some gunshots and 10 minutes later, we find Dane dead," the woman sobbed.

June has three other children who are all older. She worries about them constantly. "I have to move out now because I cannot afford for something to happen to any more of them," she said.

The woman said she hoped that leaving the community would help her cope with the tremendous loss she has suffered there. The burnt-out building in which Orlando was killed is just a few feet away from the house she's staying at now. Every morning that she goes out to work, she has to pass by it. "It's too much to handle. Just too much," she said.

She's not yet sure just where she is going to live, but the pain she feels every time she walks along the lane, keeps her determined to move.