Chris Singh, 22, of D’Edward Village, West Coast Berbice, died by drowning last weekend in the Abary Creek in Region 5.
According to Lishawattie Singh, her son, who was a father of two, travelled into the Abary Creek area several days ago to work with a cattle farmer there. She said that her son did various jobs but she noted that he enjoyed working on cattle ranches as a “cow brander.”
Singh said that the young man left their home to work with someone identified only as “Nizamudeen” in the Abary Creek area some two weeks ago. He was expected to return home on Monday and on Sunday afternoon, around 2:30 pm, he called her and confirmed his plans to return home the following day. She said that she found the call strange, since he would not usually call home during the latter days of his stay in the Abary Creek.
She said her son told her that he and his friends were “hanging out” in the area and that they were returning to the ranch at the time to “tie up them cow.” She said that the following day, around 4:30am, the young man’s employer visited her home and told the family that he had “some bad news.”
“My smaller son went out to he and he seh he want see me, so when me go, me know something happen to meh son,” she noted. She said the man then informed that Chris and his friends were in a boat travelling up the Abary Creek late Sunday afternoon, when he fell overboard.
“When he give me that news, me tek it on, because only six months back me bury me husband and me son gone a creek fa mek ends meet,” the grieving woman stated between sobs.
She said the man told her that they searched for her son the rest of the afternoon on Sunday but could not find him.
Another search party combed the area on Monday morning and Chris’ body was found around 8 am, close to the ranch where he worked.
The mother of two said that she faced serious difficulties in burying her son’s remains, while noting, “we are poor people and me only had $4000 to buy ice to keep he Monday before me beg one uncle to bury meh son.” The woman stated that she only started working at the Rosignol Market some three weeks ago, “after things get too much fa we and meh son decide he goin in Abary Creek to get more work.”
She said that her son’s common-law wife lives with her and she noted that the future of her two grandchildren appears bleak, since jobs are difficult to find in the area.
