| “I begged mom to stop going to Suriname”– Ramchandar MotieramRelatives of the late Inderjeet Roy Ramdass are still fighting to come to grips with his death.Yesterday, his wife, Meenawattie Ramdass, of Number Seventy-Eight Village, Corentyne, said they were making the necessary arrangements to bury him later today at the Number Seventy-Eight cemetery.She believes that he perished because he was in poor health. “He got sugar and he used to go to doctor steady, and maybe that was why he couldn’t save heself. He foot must be catch cramp in the water.”Apart from his wife, he is survived by his 24-year-old son Ravi, daughter Devi, 22, Ryan, 15, and Lata Devi, who is 11 years old.Relatives of Indranie Motieram console each other outside the Skeldon Hospital MortuaryRamdass was the captain of Ms Sevi 2, which was transporting passengers along the Corentyne River last Friday at 16:45 hours, when it capsized.The vessel was travelling from Suriname to Guyana.A police release said that at about 6:30hrs yesterday, Ramdass’s body was found along the foreshore at No.69 Village, Corentyne.The actual amount of persons which were on board the vessel is not clear, as some reports suggest that there could have been as many as ten passengers.Four bodies were recovered on Saturday in the vicinity of the Numbers Sixty-Three and Sixty-Nine foreshores, and in the vicinity of Scottsburg.The bodies recovered were identified as 64-year-old Sheila Gonsalves of Corriverton; Indranie Motieram, 48, of Crabwood Creek, Corentyne; Ena Hope, 31, of Number Seventy-Eight Village; and 45-year-old Drupatie Bahagiloo, called Nalini Ganpat, of Hampshire, Corentyne.Leslie Owen Austin, 24, of Number Seventy-Eight Village, managed to swim to the Number Sixty-Three Foreshore and report the matter.Sherry Ann Haynes, who was a passenger on the vessel, was found alive at a hotel at Corriverton yesterday morning. She was one of the persons fitted with a life-jacket, and she swam ashore at No. 57 Village, Corentyne. Another man, Henry Gonsalves of Queenstown, is still missing.Yesterday relatives of Indranie Motieram held on to each other as tears flowed freely. Her daughter-in-law, Mohanie Suknanan, and her son, Ramchandar Motieram, arrived in Guyana yesterday morning from the United States after being told of the tragedy. “We were on the 1 am flight from J.F.K. We got the message that there was an accident involving a boat on the river.”Her son said that when he arrived home from work on Friday, there was a missed called from Guyana on his caller’s identification gadget. He immediately purchased a phone card to return the call. He said that although he suspected something was wrong, he did not expect to be told that something had happened to his mother. “After they found the boat (on Saturday) I gave up. I got the news that she was holding onto the boat.”Indranie Motieram leaves behind six other children.Ramchandar Motieram could not help sobbing when he remembered that he had told his mother to cease plying her trade in Suriname after he left for the United States.He said he told her it was okay to visit her relatives but not to be a regular traveller.Their last conversation was on Wednesday.“She was at a wake house. Her last words were: ‘I love you guys!’ ”He recalled that he had promised his mother that he and his family would come home to Guyana on November17th for his birthday. The trip would have also coincided with the 12th death anniversary of his father, Deodat Motieram.Meanwhile,Wholesale Football Jerseys, Motieram’s brother, Muniram, called ‘Dado Boy,’ explained that her body was found between two concrete water flats. “When I go, I saw my sister with fresh blood running out. You couldn’t recognize her because of how she damage from the eye up.”Many residents of the Corriverton area are now asking, “Will life ever be the same again?”On Saturday, Mrs. Ramdass said her husband, Roy Ramdass, left their home on Friday, just after 16:00 hours, for Nickerie to collect Ena Hope and her friends.The woman said that when Roy Ramdass got to Nickerie, he informed them that a fifth person had joined the group of passengers, but she did not know the name of the individual.They departed Nickerie about 17:00 hours for Guyana. She related that the journey should have lasted for about 20 to 25 minutes. When she did not see him within that time frame, she became concerned.Another boat had passed them on the way, and when that group arrived she enquired of her husband’s whereabouts. “He seh they pass them on the river and they deh behind ah come. We look, we wait a good time, we ain’t see nothing. We send a boat to search fuh them after the boy say that seine deh across the river and that he ain’t know if they gwine see it.”Mrs. Ramdass indicated that the Corentyne River was familiar to her husband, since he had been plying his trade on the very river since 2003. According to her, safety measures were in place on the boat. “When they find the bodies, all of them had on live jacket.”Ms. Sevi 2 was found upturned and drifting on Saturday with the seine entangled on the propeller.On Saturday, she was very hopeful. “Me know he still alive and deh somewhere out deh, because he got a life jacket on. Is the first time something like that happen to he. We call the police in Suriname and ask them to come out with we and help, but them nah come.”Post mortem examinations were done on the bodies yesterday at the Skeldon Hospital morgue. |
