Tragedy strikes Trelawny family ... mom then daughter

WESTERN BUREAU:

When Samuel Copeland rushed his common-law wife, Felician Guthrie, to the Percy Junor Hospital in Manchester last Saturday night, he did not imagine that he would soon watch her take her last breath.

Guthrie’s death has marked the second tragedy experienced by this Litchfield, Trelawny, family since the start of the year as her mother, Ephney May Guthrie, passed away on January 8. The elder Guthrie died of a heart attack while accompanying her now-deceased daughter to a doctor’s appointment.

Copeland told The Gleaner that his spouse died a day after her mother’s funeral at the age of 40.

The women, who also lived together, reportedly shared a very close bond.

“She said that she just had a low feeling come over her. She did a say she nuh feel so well and she ready fi go home now, so mi fi carry her go hospital,” Copeland shared.

“Mi nuh know wah she mean. She just said that she was ready to go home now. So the whole a we lif her up and carry her go put her inna the car then we drive go Spalding Hospital. By the time she fi pon the stretcher, the doctor pronounced her dead,” he added.

While noting that their family has been left distressed by the sudden death of both women, Copeland said that he is yet to come to grips with the loss of the woman with whom he shared a 20-year relationship.

“She wasn’t sick in bed. She was up and down sorting out her mother’s funeral. Her pressure was high, but we did carry her go doctor go check it out and we do wah heart test, so she did a check up on herself. Every move she a mek to doctor, a me and her,” he said while shaking his head.

For Leroy Richards, the deaths of both women have been a “living nightmare” he is desperately trying to wake up from. Richards said he has been distraught as he was taken in and raised by the elder Guthrie after his biological mother abandoned him 46 years ago.

“She was more than a mother to me. She was both my mother and father. She raised me from six months old. I heard that my mother left me, and she took care of me, and I am now 46,” said Richards.

He shared that he has been left heartbroken since January as both women had a great impact on his life.

“My biological mother died, and I didn’t feel like this. I didn’t cry, but this lady’s death knocked me off my feet. This hurts so bad, and now my sister drop out again,” Richards said.

Richards told The Gleaner that while his sister was seemingly unhappy after their mother’s funeral, he could not have imagined that she would have suddenly passed away.

“I was here with her on Saturday, and we were running jokes. I told her that she has to cheer up because the aftereffects hurt so bad. My mother and my mother-in-law died three days apart, so I cannot comfort my wife, and my wife cannot comfort me. So I really know how she was feeling,” he said.

“I reminded her that she has her daughter to live for as she has a 14-year-old daughter who lives with her. She was sitting there going through the pictures on her phone and saying, ‘Wow! Look how mommy pretty,’ so mi seh, ‘Cho, sis! Mek we talk bout something different’ then I left for work,” Richards continued.

The man said that he did not expect his sister to be dead the next time he saw her.

“Mi go over there and mi see her. Mi affi say, ‘Sis, wah mek you affi go do this to me now? Mi nuh tell you say you have your daughter fi live fa? Mi know say it hurt, but don’t give up,” said Richards.

As the family looks to plan their second funeral since the start of the year, Richards is hopeful that Guthrie’s young daughter will see happier days.

“My biggest concern is now her daughter. Mi wouldn’t mind if she get some counselling because she lost her grandmother and mother in the same period of time, so I know that her head space is messed up right now,” he told The Gleaner.

rochelle.clayton@gleanerjm.com