Bitter relief

For the past week, Venasia Stewart has endured sleepless nights, deeply troubled that, despite efforts from friends, family, and the authorities, her son – who was known for his helpful nature – could not be found.

Despite being distressed, a semblance of closure arrived around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday when she received a call reporting that a body had been spotted floating near mangroves behind the Petrojam oil refinery on Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston.

By 11:15 a.m., the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard recovered the partially decomposed body from the mangroves, which were within reach of crocodiles. They transported the body to land at the Greenwich Town Fishing Village, where family members positively identified it as Alric Moncrieffe.

Moncrieffe, 26, was washed away in a storm drain in Havana, Arnett Gardens, St Andrew, during the passage of Hurricane Beryl last week Wednesday.

'Lala', or 'Kalonji' as he was affectionately called, was still clad in the multicoloured hoodie he was last seen wearing on that ill-fated day.

Stewart chose not to visit the scene, lacking the emotional strength and preferring to remember her son differently.

“Mi glad dem find him body and me affi just try hold it … . [It has been] sleepless nights; I don’t get no sleep,” Stewart told The Gleaner as relatives consoled her.

She said that, the last time she saw her son, minutes before he was washed away, their discourse surrounded a familiar topic – food.

“Mi say to him say, 'Kalonji, come cook the food fi me', and him say, 'Mommy, me nah cook no food … .' Mi say, 'Mi a go cook some mackerel and rice', and him say, 'no', him want dumpling. So mi say me nah knead no dumpling, a rice me a go cook, and him say, 'Gwan go cook weh ya cook', and that’s it,” Stewart said in her first interview since his disappearance.

Her cousin, Nadine Blackwood, who was visiting from overseas and has been with the family over the past few days assisting the search party, said Moncrieffe's mother will miss him assisting her around the kitchen.

“When she is cooking, he is in the kitchen helping his mom, and to lose a child like that, untimely, but God knows all things,” Blackwood told The Gleaner.

Since July 3, there have been several search teams combing the gully along Collie Smith Drive, which runs through the May Pen Cemetery and continues under Marcus Garvey Drive and finally meets the sea near Petrojam.

On Sunday, a member of the search team came in close contact with a single crocodile and the search in that section was aborted.

Robert Grant, a relative, said it has been a terrible ordeal for the family.

“When I heard what happen to Kalonji, it was so hurtful. Honestly, I could not sleep … . I don’t even understand what his mom is going through right now because it supposed to be so crazy for her, just to think about losing a child,” Grant said.

He recalled the days of searching gullies and the seaside for the missing Moncrieffe, who was reportedly trying to retrieve a football from the waterway when he was swept away.

“[We searched] all over and, trust me, is only the ball we did find," said Grant. "It's so good to find him. We feeling so good today that we found him, and sad at the same time.”

Grant, who was pleased to see Moncrieffe pave a positive path and get employed as a security guard, said he was emotional just talking about him.

“Kalonji was a man, but I would say he was a sweetheart, a good, good youth. When you grow up in a the garrison like this, you can turn out wicked, y'know. It's there where you can become notorious and dem yute deh in a him 20s and mi never see dem yute deh wid all a sharp knife yet,” Grant said.

He said Moncrieffe, who was involved in a custodial battle with his child's mother, was worried over his son, and wondered if that played a hand in his not thinking straight to venture into the rushing waters during the hurricane.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com