FORTY-FIVE-YEAR-OLD fisherman Christalall Ramlall remained motionless in his bed at Goed Bananen Land, East Canje Berbice. The pangs of death had already held him firmly in their grasp. It had been three days since he had last been seen by his elder brother, Mahendra Persaud, who, like him, lived in poverty in a tenement yard.

Christalall had been experiencing domestic issues. His wife had complained that she could no longer stay in a home where the floors creaked, the walls were porous, and the roof leaked. It failed to be a place of safety for her and her daughter. Their constant arguments about low supply of necessities in the home had often led to her being abused; and Christalall did not go to sea regularly, but when he did, he would return home with some catch, and would remain on shore until all the money was exhausted, some inevitably on alcohol. Disgusted with the situation, his wife had decided to leave him on May 17, taking their teenage daughter with her.

The following day, Christalall Ramlall was seen when he left the home, and when he returned later that afternoon, skilfully mounting the stairs before shutting the door. That was the last time he had been seen alive by his siblings, with whom he had shared an estranged relationship.

No one bothered to check on him, until an obnoxious liquid started dripping through the flooring of the upper flat. His brother Mahendra Persaud, living in the squalid lower flat, sensed something may be terribly wrong and summoned the courage to call his brother with whom he was not on speaking terms.

His shouts went unanswered, so he skilfully manoeuvred the shaky stairway and knocked on the door. There was still no response, and his attempts to open a nearby window proved unsuccessful.

Someone suggested that he should use more force to open the door, so he armed himself with a four-by-four piece of lumber and bashed the door open.

Persaud was the first to see Christalall laid on his bed dressed in the very clothes he had last been seen wearing. He was motionless, bloated, obnoxious, and very dead.

The police were summoned, and they took his body away to the New Amsterdam Hospital, where he was certified dead. On Friday, May 22, Dr Vivikanand Brijmohan reported that Christalall Ramlall had ingested a poisonous substance. He had committed suicide.

His siblings, including his brother, wept. They now deeply regret the insignificant differences that had caused them to be alienated although they were living in the same yard.

“Meh sarry meh buddy tek he own life! Me sarry me could-nah help he! Me nah know dat he woulda do dah!” they lamented.

Ramlall was buried on Saturday at the Reliance Cemetery in East Canje, Berbice.
By Jeune Bailey Vankeric