A Christian missionary couple from Hauraruni died last evening following a collision between their car and a lorry along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway.
The couple were on their way home from a trip to Georgetown when the accident occurred.
Divisional commander for ‘B’ Division, Region Four, Senior Superintendent Linden Isles confirmed the identities of the missionaries as 75-year-old Cornelis Rozema and his wife Lucille Bernice Rozema, 79, both of Hauraruni, Linden/Soesdyke Highway.
The accident was said to have occurred around 8 pm in the vicinity of Hauraruni.
Lucille, a native of Guyana hailed from Stanleytown, West Bank Demerara. She was a registered nurse and certified midwife at the time of her death. She migrated and married Cornelis, a Dutch national. She later returned to Guyana with Cornelis and the two settled in Hauraruni in 1995 where they have been living since.
Stabroek News spoke with the former administrator of the Hauraruni Girls’ Homes, Deoram Timram and he shared that the Rozemas were the founders of an organisation called Guyana International Mission, adding that through the mission they would visit various parts of Guyana. “Sis Bernice was a gem. I knew her from since back in 1976. She was a midwife and people in the village, whenever they needed medical attention for minor things, they went to see her. She would have served in her earlier days as the matron for the Full Gospel Fellowship Bible School,” Timram recalled. He mentioned also that the couple would make donations to the Hauraruni Girls’ Home from time to time.
Meanwhile, an eyewitness told this newspaper that he was on his way to work earlier yesterday when he saw the couple in the vicinity of DSL on the East Bank Demerara Highway where they had stopped after their car had a blowout.