— aggrieved fisherman vows never to return to sea again

THE reputed wife of Sherwin Lovell, the rescued survivor of the barbaric pirate attack passed away suddenly Sunday morning, reportedly from an illness after hearing that her husband was among those killed in the incident.

Barely able to console himself, Sherwin related to the Guyana Chronicle that after the news of the pirate attack surfaced, his reputed wife Michelle Carol became ill.

“After this whole pirate attack happen and like she hear I dead, she tek on and she stress out she self and she had to go to the doctor and get treatment. When I come home and she know I alive she still sick bad,” Lovell related.

As he sat staring at an album of pictures with Carol in happier times and wiping away his tears, the fisherman said despite living together for just a short time, their love was real as he reminisced on how he “had e eye on she long now”.

Carol lived in the same compound where he resides.

He said because of the love and bond they shared, he could not stay in hospital despite being advised by doctors to remain there for at least three days to recuperate.

“You know when you love somebody you just can’t leave them like dat, so I come home and try to take care of her, I make soup and them things but she ain’t able eat it and this morning when I mek tea to give her and she just gone. Since I come out the hospital me ain’t really sleep, me hand all hurting but I love she bad so I had to take care of she, cause she does do the same for me,” a weeping Lovell said.

The heartbroken fisherman is trying to make contact with Carol’s relatives at Mocha, East Bank Demerara, the village where she was born and bred.

DARKEST DAYS

Saying he is going through the darkest days of his life, the fisherman said it is with a very heavy heart that he would be returning to Guyana with the body of his wife and an empty pocket. Lovell is appealing to the public for some financial support.

Her death has taken a toll on him.

“I can’t work. I don’t really have anything and now my wife die,” he said.

Lovell, 33, has been a fisherman for over 10 years and is originally from Craig Village, East Bank Demerara, but has been residing in Suriname for several years now.

The fisherman, who is nursing  several chop wounds about the body, burns on his back, a broken arm, dehydration and has nightmares whenever he closes his eyes, said she is done with the seas and fishing and vows to never go there again.

Recounting the horrific ordeal, he said he and his colleagues were asleep when they were awoken to the sound of cutlasses banging on the sides of their boat.

He related that he then heard the men jumping onto the boat. Before his colleagues could realise what was happening, they heard what appeared to be gunshots and the men started to chop and broadside them with cutlasses.

“Them start asking how much fish we got and take we out of the cabin and put we in the paro (storage bin) and start beat we up. One a dem tek the oil we had two container cooking oil and put it the pot and hot it, them start beat we fuh empty the fish. We had like 57snapper, 200 something catfish and a set a small fish like banga, mackerel and a set of other fish,” he said.

GRUESOME

Grimacing in pain, he continued that the men chopped them while they were emptying the fish and another at the said time poured the hot oil on their backs.

Others destroyed their boat engines and sprayed the gasoline on them.

Recognising death was imminent; Lovell said he decided to jump overboard.

“After I see me friends them getting chopped up and them man start spray gas on we and hot oil, I jump overboard and dive. When I reach a lil distance away I raise up and the current carry me away from them. The salt water start burn me, then is when I realise is how much chop and cut me had. I drift fuh two days till I reach shore. When I reach, me ain’t had no energy; the tide just carry me up and up the bank whenever the wave come in. When I reach the hard spot, I try to get up and start walking to see if could find anybody,” he said.

Lovell recalled that he mustered strength for two days until he found someone and a call was made to a police station and soon after he collapsed from dizziness. When he awoke, he found himself in hospital and thanked “Father God for being alive”.

Due to the death of his wife, Lovell was unable to meet Minister Ramjattan who met with relatives of the other men on Saturday.

Persons interested in helping Lovell can make contact with him on telephone 597-850-4503.