Fifteen-year-old Joel Adams who lost his life after reportedly attempting a backflip at a pool at the National Aquatic Centre in Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown, on July 9, came from humble beginnings.
Tamica Garnett, the now deceased boy’s cousin, related that he had life a bit more difficult than most children, coming from a broken home and then losing his mother in the process. But despite these challenges, her mother Jo’anna Adams-Daly, provided a home for him with endless love and care, however things became a bit tough and her mother had no choice but to place him into foster care. “Even though he was in state care my mom would visit him several times each year. She always went for his birthday and Christmas and took things for him at the start of the school year.”
Jo’anna Adams-Daly, the boy’s aunt, shared with the Sunday Stabroek that Joel’s father has been bedridden even before the incident occurred. Joel ended up in state care after she faced some difficulties with other persons who claimed that she was ill-treating the young man. “He went into foster care in 2018.” Notwithstanding this turn of events, she would visit him regularly and promised to take him out of foster care once he was older and reunite him with his younger sister.