The pond that claimed the lives of two children at Vey-Vey, Mahaica had been used by the family for domestic chores.
The children, eight-year-old Brandy Monisha Thomas and Lenny Junior Trim, 18-months-old, were alone at home with their sister, Shennia Trim, age three, when they fell into the pond and drowned.
Their mother, 25-year-old Natasha Thomas had left home to go to the shop when she received the news that Lenny had drowned. Her husband, Allen Trim, a labourer was at work at the time.
She told Stabroek News (SN) yesterday that as if the news that her son had drowned was not enough to cope with, when she got to the scene she learnt that Brandy, a Grade Three student of the Helena Primary School had perished as well.
The devastated woman said she started to “holler… I couldn’t believe it, this is hard… it hard. I can’t even find enough tears to cry for my children.”
But she is trying her best to be “strong” for Shennia and her two-month-old baby, Carara. She reminisced that Brandy was a very lively and willing child who was very helpful around the house.
She said she left the children upstairs and warned them to remain there. She also told them not to go close to the pond that is separated from her yard by a zinc fence. She uses water from the pond for household chores by removing a makeshift zinc gate.
She said she ensured that the ‘gate’ was in place before leaving home and assumed that the older child must have removed it to “dip water.” Thomas also felt that the toddler must have fallen in and that his sister went after him in an effort to save him.
This newspaper visited the woman’s house through a narrow muddy track about a quarter-mile away from the public road but learnt that she was staying at her mother-in-law’s house at the nearby Chelsea Park village close to the roadside.
Her sister, Annie Simon who lives next door told SN that she was out and when she returned home at around 3 pm the children were in the house. Shortly after, she said they came downstairs and were playing in the yard – the gate to the pond was still in place.
She said she sent them back up and went about her business. She was not aware that they had slipped down back. Simon said around 3:30 pm her brother, Delroy went over to check on the children but could not find them – except for Shannia – anywhere.
He questioned Shannia about the children’s whereabouts and she responded “pond.” Delroy immediately went to check the pond and discovered Lenny’s body floating. He made a frantic search around the yard for Brandy, hoping to find her alive but she was nowhere around.
After raising an alarm, a cousin went into the pond in search of the girl and fished out her body shortly after at another end.
Another aunt, Melissa Thomas who was also there kept lamenting that Brandy “was a very intelligent child who loved to read. I always had in mind that she would be somebody good and I always told her to focus…”
Thomas said a post-mortem would be performed on the children’s remains on Wednesday and she is preparing for the funeral at Chelsea Park the following day.