Palpable grief floods the Yasseen household at Good Hope, East Coast Demerara where the spirit of a young man kept the family happy and hopeful, and reminded them of what is really important in life.
The usual sound of laughter in the home is no more and their comfortable little world has been shattered with the death of Abdool Yasseen.
Yassen, age 23 years, was a promising youth who stared trouble in the face, and rose above it, but the crisis that confronted him and four others working along with him on his family’s boat at Bartica on Sunday proved too much. He and the rest of the men were later counted among the twelve dead in the most recent tragedy to grip the country.
“I spoke to him a short while before he was killed and his last words to me were, ‘mom I love you, I love you mom.’ He was just the sweetest thing and to know that he is gone hurts,” his mother told Stabroek News yesterday.
The grief-stricken woman, who sat among visibly distraught relatives at her East Coast Demerara home, spoke quietly. Every time she calls her son’s name a smile lights up her face but only for a brief period. She appears to be deep in reflection as she recalls how charming he was and well liked in and outside of the home.
She prefers to be called, ‘Mamsey’, which is the name many persons know her by. She said that her husband died a year ago a few days before Abdool celebrated his 22nd birthday and immediately after that, the young man declared he was the man of the home and that he would act accordingly. He was completing studies at the University of Guyana but balanced that with new-found commitments at home.
Since growing up, she said, he talked of managing the family business and after he graduated from UG last year he took control. He studied business management so as to effectively run the business. Mamsey said her son handled his business commitments well and he worked tirelessly to have things done productively.
Outside of that, he was the ideal son. Yasseen spent quality time with his younger siblings, his mother and his grandmother who he was very close to. He was somehow always around to care for his grandmother when she was ill and never left her side until she was strong again. He also found time to do neighbourly things with persons in the area and had countless friends.
Mamsey said she was fortunate to have been blessed with a son who often preferred to stay in than go out and who used that time to spread joy in the family. She said he was serious about his younger sister’s education and was instrumental in having her enrolled at UG. He also gave up his vehicle so she would have no hassle getting to and from classes.
For years, the woman said, she drove a minibus working the East Coast route to support her family. Mamsey recalled that some days there was no conductor but she went out anyway and worked. That she pointed out was to give her children a comfortable life and a good education. She said they were a happy family but now tragedy has entered their lives and snatched the one person they all looked to.
“No one had a bad word for him when he was alive, no one and since his death people have been reaching out to me from all corners. They are calling from everywhere and many have cried bitterly. The things I can say about him, people can also,” the mother said.
According to her, many in the family are not taking his death well, particularly her remaining children. She said it is extremely hard on all of them. After journeying up to Essequbio on Wednesday for the funeral of Ashraf Khan, Mamsey will bury her son today. And the most difficult part will be saying goodbye.
Loved the water
Over at Montrose where Baldeo Singh spent most of his years, relatives are still in shock. Singh was the adult in the home who stayed in touch with his inner child. The children around him loved him, one relative said yesterday, and he did just about anything within his power to please them.
Several relatives gathered to reflect on Singh’s life and many shared stories about when he would go home and was available to do anything that anyone wanted. They said he worked as a carpenter some years ago but after he could not find steady work, he changed jobs. Singh loved the water, according to his relatives so it was an easy decision to start working on a boat.
He would frequent home occasionally and spend time with the family, then would be gone in a few days. One relative pointed out that he was here today, gone tomorrow and whenever he left the place was not the same. It was different, they said, and though no one could quite say how different, one person said, “You just missed him.”
On the day that Singh left for Bartica he did not tell the family where he was going until he went out the gate and was a little distance on the road. They said he walked out of the yard, looked back and shouted, “Ah gone to Bartica.”
Singh was supposed to have been cremated yesterday but the inclement weather pushed his last rites to today.
