‘I wish I could tell my son I love him’

Keisha Hall is a broken woman as she tries to come to terms with the death of her 22-year-old son, Mickael Reid.

Hall had refused to speak with her son during a two-week-long dispute over a car.

She admits to repeatedly walking past him inside the Old Harbour Bay house where Reid lived with his girlfriend and stepdaughter as the grievance festered. Not a word.

The mother had refused to budge because she believed Reid should have apologised over a perceived wrong.

Reid, a customer service agent, was a pillion rider on a bike being driven by 20-year-old farmer Javoy Pallamino that crashed on the Old Harbour main road on Wednesday morning. Both men died in the collision.

Hall’s grief is compounded by the loss of two of her brothers three years apart – 2016 and 2019 - to violence. They were both shot and killed.

“I wish I could tell my son that I love him. ... Right now mi just a look fi see him come up and say, ‘Mummy, mi all right,’” she said.

The only comfort she now has is the revelation from Reid’s girlfriend that he had vowed to thaw the icy relationship in two weeks if Hall did not relent.

Hall is warning other families to resolve their rows before it’s too late.

“No matter what dispute you have, try fi be the bigger person, even if you right, try fi cheer up the next person. Talk to them. No regrets when they are gone,” she said.

Hall described her son as a people person who was loved by everyone in her community of Longville Park, Clarendon.

She said she was shocked to hear of his demise because he had pledged, time and again, never to go on a bike.

Hall said that her pain has been worsened by insensitive persons who are sharing scenes from the accident on social media.

Reid’s stepfather, after seeing one of the images, fainted and had to be rushed to the hospital. She was also hit hard when she saw WhatsApp pictures of her son’s mangled body.

“Some people don’t know what I’m going through losing a loved one and dem have his picture all over social media. That is not nice,” she said.

Reports from the Spanish Town police are that about 8:50 a.m., the men were travelling on a Yeng Yeng motorcycle that collided with a Mazda motor car. The motorcycle then collided with a motor truck travelling in the opposite direction.

They were pronounced dead at hospital.

Up to July 15, there were 255 crash fatalities in Jamaica. This represents 30 more than for the corresponding period in 2020.