Dear Editor,

Opening yesterday’s newspapers was most painful and truly sad.  After our early morning routine of prayers and exercise, we stopped to open the newspapers, and were taken aback by the drowning of two handsome little boys of Linden, Akeemo Fredericks and Andre Fredericks.

As we read on, my wife and I hugged and cried for the loss of the beautiful youthful lives that could have done so much for country in time to come.

We looked at the photograph of the anguish of the pains of the mother and cried more.  In what way can a person give sympathy for such monumental loss, especially when her husband died by drowning in the not too distant past.

Being parents ourselves and having beautiful and handsome children, we could understand and imagine what the mother is going through.

The mother clutched and pressed the lower part of her tummy in anguish. I saw many instances where children died, but especially when they die unnaturally, or are murdered in heinous ways, the clutching of the lower part of the tummy by the mother.

Only mothers know the pangs of childbirth: the weight of the `universe’ she carried for nine months. I truly can understand why women hold that lower part of their stomach.

May God give the mother of the beautiful children peace and comfort.

Yours faithfully,
Haji Roshan Khan
Chief Servant &
President,
Guyana Islamic Forum
for Education, Peace and
Religious Solidarity