“Meh don’t feel safe because of what happen here,” says Philomena Lancaster, four months after she watched her husband being hacked to death by an itinerant man they had offered a cup of tea.
On October 20, Lancaster’s husband, Cedric Blackman, a 72-year-old shop owner, had been sitting by his door when the accused, a man whom the couple had offered shelter to, reportedly “trip out”.
Sitting in a chair in the cosy living room opposite the chair where Blackman was attacked, Lancaster says she misses her husband very much. “I does think about him in ma quiet time, he was a very loving husband to me and I does thank God fuh him and ask God to give him a resting place,” she told Stabroek News. The woman recalled that it was just after 9.30am when the accused stopped by her Lot 57 Russell and Howes streets home and asked for tea.
“He ask me if me mek tea and get and he ask fuh bread and I say I ain’t get bread and he say he gun go buy the bread,” she said. The woman said she and her son-in-law had been in the kitchen when the accused returned. “Quick time he come back and we hear the rap and me husband open the door see is he….” She said her son-in-law later told her he had heard her husband say “No” but “when we come [into the drawing room] we meet he chopping me husband.”
“Up to the morning [of the attack] he drink tea hey suh this thing shock me what he do to me husband,” she reiterated, the shock still evident in her voice. Lancaster also recalled that on the morning of the attack the accused had shown up at her home carrying a cutlass. She said that he had told her husband previously that he had gotten a job as a gardener.
Originally from Berbice, the woman said that she and her husband knew the accused from there. When the man moved to town, he visited them and asked for a place to stay. She said that they relented and assisted him but “Me nah expect this but ya know when ya get a soft heart…” she said, her voice trailing off. She also revealed that she was really hurt to discover the morning after the brazen attack that her small shop had been burgled and she believes that persons in the area committed the act.
Lancaster said that her daughter had suggested she spend the night at another relative’s home since she was still in shock. Her daughter, she said, slept at a neighbour. “Oh lawd, ah cudda drop down when me come when me see what tek place fuh know ma husband dead and this is what they do.
They carry away ma clothes and ma bag with all ma papers and ma husband pension book,” she said. “People nah get heart in this life?” she asked. She told this newspaper that she now depends on her children and her old age pension to meet her needs. The shop has been closed since the attack.
The woman said she hopes to reopen it one day as she and her husband made their living from it, since he retired. “He always say is me he working for, he want to make me happy,” she added. She also noted that she had told the National Insurance Scheme that Blackman’s pension book had been taken in the robbery but she has been left frustrated by the run-around. In the meantime, Lancaster said she is thankful for the assistance that she receives from her children.
The woman said she met her husband 23 years ago while she had been waiting to find out whether she had been hired by the same company he had been employed at. She said it was Blackman who had helped her to get the job back in New Amsterdam. She also shared that at that time, “I had a very bad husband” but “I use to pray and ask God fuh a good husband.” Lancaster believes that her prayers were answered when she and Blackman later entered into a relationship.
“Me vibration and he vibration agree,” she said, in describing their relationship. She added, “Anyway we live, people tell me they like how we live. If I lef this house is me and he going, if me say me nah feeling good he does go to the drug store fuh get me stuff or he does come with me to the hospital. He was a very good husband to me,” she added.
These days, Lancaster says she has “left everything in the Lord’s hand” as she continues to deal with the loss of her husband.
She also revealed that she is more cautious these days when answering the door and though her daughter and son-in-law live with her, she is usually home alone during the day.
She added that she passes the time quietly.
The accused, a construction worker of Stevedore Housing Scheme, has since been charged with two counts of murder and two counts of malicious wounding with the intent to commit murder.
Also killed during the attack was Ann Cham-A-Koon 38, who lived near Blackman.
According to reports Cham-A-Koon had left her house to get a closer look at the commotion unfolding in the area when she was attacked.
During the 15-minute rampage Shawn DeSouza and Radesh Persaud who reside in the area, were also injured.
