Almost six months after Rhonda Da Silva died in a boating incident, life has not been the same for her partner Ivan LaRose and their four-year-old daughter as the man was rushed into signing a compensation package with the Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI) and says he must now seek legal advice to regain custody of his child.
On March 13, 24-year-old Da Silva of Kwakwani Waterfront, LaRose and their daughter Celina were sailing in their paddle boat which was pulled under a BCGI tug after the captain started the vessel’s engine. Da Silva who was seven months pregnant at the time, perished while LaRose and the child were rescued.
Since the tragedy, 58-year-old LaRose, a security guard, has been grief-stricken. His deepest hurt is losing custody of his daughter and being denied the opportunity to continue a father/daughter relationship with her, he told Stabroek News. “This is really terrible, this is grieving me a lot, I am taking on this thing and really need legal help,” a teary LaRose said.
According to LaRose, on March 15, BCGI called him, Carol Eastman and Rachel Vanlewin, the mother and grandmother of the deceased, to a meeting to address compensation and settlement. He recalled that they were each given a document to read and sign but because he “doesn’t see too well” he simply looked at it and signed, as did DaSilva’s relatives.
A copy of the document shared with this newspaper revealed no stamp or signature from the company but had stated its address as Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc of 274 Peter Rose Street, Queenstown, and Georgetown. The document stated that on March 15 Vanlewin would assume custody of the child Celina LaRose “for upbringing and care” and that she accepts $1million “as a single payment as well as a gesture of good will and humanitarian aid without all or any liability whether civil, criminal, or otherwise whatsoever, whatsoever type or description arising out of or related to” [the incident] on March 13.
According to LaRose, from the moment the money was given to Vanlewin he started getting a raw deal. “This is not all about money, but they didn’t give me anything and I almost lost my life and my daughter barely got save and now they take away my child totally from me,” the man sobbed. He said he was told that a fixed deposit was opened in the name of the child to the value of $600,000 and $400,000 was used to offset expenses for the funeral.
LaRose said the company rushed to present a compensation package at a time when he was still in a state of shock and grieving. “Two days after, how man? Now I getting a chance to think, that was taking advantage of a poor man like me,” he said. “Nobody can ever know how it hurt me to lose my wife and my unborn baby and now I am being treated like an outcast,” he added.
The man said he was surprised to be summoned by the probation officer in the area where Vanlewin had filed a claim for child support from him.
“I asked them to show me the bank account they refusing to show me, they said that the copy of the document the have from Rusal has a stamp. I am asking them to show me they not showing me. This is my child! And I love my daughter. Me and she mother was all she grow up with and lots of love now she ain’t getting it,” he said.
According to LaRose, in the presence of the welfare officer he agreed to give the child $10,000 fortnightly. He also alleged that the welfare officer has refused to give him a hearing although the child reached out to him and was reluctant to return to her great-grandmother. “She running on to me and ain’t losing. God knows I love and want my child she is all I have,” he said.
In desperation, LaRose said, on Tuesday he decided to seek further advice and guidance on the issue and, along with his daughter and Vanlewin, he took the matter to the police station. It was at the police station, he said, that the document was read and explained to him for the first time and the police advised him to seek legal counsel. “It’s not that I can’t read but my vision ain’t good,” he said.
Since the ill fated day, LaRose said, he was forced to vacate the house he once occupied and he is currently boarding with his sister in Lamp Island, Kwakwani. He believes the home better suits the needs of his child and he has the full support of his siblings. He said at her current location his daughter is often locked up in a small house and seldom gets the opportunity to play in the yard or with children her own age.
Several of LaRose’s neighbours at Kwakwani Waterfront empathised with him. A former neighbour, Linda McKenzie, told this newspaper that the man has not stopped grieving. “He would always come around and we would try to comfort he when he tell we all wah going on and it sad cause he, Rhonda and that child were really, really close I tell yuh deh truth,” she said.
When LaRose related his case to Member of Parliament Vanessa Kissoon, who was in Kwakwani at the time, she was disgusted. “It’s appalling to note how persons who are not aware of their rights are used, misused and abused and it’s equally disturbing when persons who know or should know better take advantage of persons’ ignorance,” she said.
Kissoon said it was particularly unspeakable that BCGI had approached the deceased’s relatives with compensation just two days after the accident. “They were hurriedly paid off and signed to a document which has no legal binding, stamps or letterhead or a signature of the representative from the bauxite company,” she noted. The MP then called on Minister Jennifer Webster to investigate the matter since she learnt on Wednesday that the child has not been attending school, a concern shared by LaRose.
