The girl who came back from the dead

For years, Beautilyn Carvey was called the Kendal ghost because she had been listed among the close to 200 persons who had lost their lives when the train in which she was travelling derailed in Manchester on a return trip from a church event.

Years later, the Kendal tragedy remains the worst railway disaster in Jamaica’s history, and memories of that day, September 1, 1957, is still etched in Carvey’s memory.

Carvey was about 15 years old at the time and was excited upon boarding the train following an all-day excursion in Montego Bay, St James, that was attended by members of the Holy Name Society of the St Anne’s Roman Catholic Church in Kingston.

Her brother, Dennis, who was three years younger, was also on-board the train, which had about 1,600 passengers. As was customary, the boys sat at the back, while the girls were positioned at the front of the coach.

“When we went, it wasn’t full, but when we were coming back, a lot of people who went on the day trip were now looking transportation to come back to Kingston,” Carvey told The Gleaner in an exclusive interview.

As “church children”, Carvey and her brother had very few opportunities to go out. In a household with 12 children, the kids had to take turns going to such events.

“You know when you are going to things like that, your parents always get nice things for you. So I had on an elastic-waist skirt and a nice puff-sleeve shirt, because all of us were going to meet friends from church,” she said.

But joy turned to misery when the wooden body train with its two diesel engines approached the quiet town of Kendal. It was there that it ran off the rails.

Close to 200 passengers were declared dead and as many as 700 were injured. Some died on impact, while others who were trapped in several of the train’s 12 coaches slowly met their demise. According to Gleaner reports, body parts were found strewn about at the crash site. The cause of the crash was narrowed down to a failure of the train’s braking system.

COUNTED AMONG DEAD

Carvey said she had been unconscious for a while.

“When I got up now, I was among all the dead bodies that people were waiting to come and identify,” she said.

Little did she know that her father Claremont Carvey, a firefighter, had already identified her body and had gone back to town to inform her mother that they should prepare for her burial.

“‘The clothes you told me she was wearing, I’ve seen a girl, with the same height and everything, so I’ve put her body one side and tell them, don’t let anybody touch this body,’” he reportedly told her mother.

Carvey’s eldest sister, who had migrated to England a year before, was given compassionate leave to attend her funeral, as word got out that she was dead.

After coming to her senses, Carvey started searching for her brother, but could not find him among the dead. Two good Samaritans offered to assist in getting her home but she refused until they decided to help find him.

They eventually found out that her brother was admitted in hospital suffering with a head injury.

Carvey said a huge crowd was at her house at lower First Street in Kingston when she was dropped off by the kind strangers.

“The first thing my mother did, because I was in so much dirt, she locked the bathroom door and she washed me down from head to foot, put on one of her nightie, because you know her nightie is longer than ours,” recounted the crash survivor.

“She had to keep guard at the door because everyone was saying, ‘One of the Kendal crash [victim] is here, one of them is here’,” she told The Gleaner.

HER MOTHER’S REGRET

Although Cynthia Carvey, Beautilyn’s mother, was happy that her children had survived the crash, she rued having encouraged her widowed best friend to send her only child, Ashley, on the trip. Carvey’s mom told her friend that both Beautilyn and Dennis would take care of him. Tragically, Ashley died.

“My mother would put her hand on her head and cry and she would say, ‘Imagine, look how many of you I have giving so much trouble and poor Ashley die’. When my father hear her talk like that, he would get upset,” Carvey said.

For years later, Carvey was called a ghost by children in the community and her brother was called ‘Kendal Seven’, because the laceration he received in the back of his head was shaped like a seven.

She migrated four years later to England to become a nurse and eventually a midwife. Her brother migrated a few years later and lived in Manchester until he died two years ago.

Carvey’s son, Brian Awe, said that his mother has shared her memories of the crash with him and his two siblings over the years.

“It was a traumatic experience. Every year she relives it,” he said.

His sister, Janet Awe, has been documenting the story little by little.

“Obviously it is an amazing story, and the fact that she was amongst the dead is pretty smash,” Janet said.

nadine.wilson@gleanerjm.com