(Trinidad Express) Joseph Hagley’s acute sense of hearing saved the lives of his wife and daughter before he was killed by the landslide which destroyed their Sans Souci home on Sunday morning, according to two of his sons.
Samuel and Leon Hagley said despite their sadness in losing their father, who was partially blind, they were proud of him.
They said their mother and father had been living together for the last 36 years.
“He made sure to get his family out and died like a real soldier,” said Samuel Hagley.
The hillside supporting the Hagley home gave way after persistent rainfall on Friday, slipped over 150 feet and came crashing down to the base of the hill in a matter of seconds .
He said around 4.30 a.m. he was at home when he heard his father shout to his wife Carmen Gobindar, 68, and their special needs daughter Samantha, “All yuh run out the house.”
He said that both mother and daughter fled, “and after that everything turn old mas,” said Hagley.
Samuel Hagley and his brother, Leon were at the Forensic Science Centre, in St James yesterday morning where they had gone to witness their father’s autopsy.
The examination concluded that their 67-year-old father had suffocated after a mountain of mud collapsed on him.
Samuel Hagley said he lived just above his parents home and he got up and saw when a small landslide came down on his home.
He heard another one of his brothers calling him. He said while getting dressed to go to check on his mother, “I just start to hear the whole hill coming down. Me and my other brother start to run and this landslide was just coming towards us. It all happen in just the wink of an eye.”
Hagley said that his father heard the landslide, “because his hearing was very well tuned despite his age”.
The family said they were still making funeral arrangements.
