The dead brother and sister, Cyril Millington and Michelle Millington-Carryl, in happier times.

Local relatives and friends of the closely knit Millington clan of Agricola, East Bank Demerara, were yesterday still trying to come to grips with the devastating news of the gruesome death of a brother, sister and nephew, around 6:30h Sunday in Georgia, U.S.A. at the hands of a drunken driver.

Dead are Cyril Millington, 59, his sister Michelle Millington – Carryl, 41, and a nephew Dwight Spencer, 19.

Carryl’s children, Jamal 15, Jamilla, 13 and Jeanine, 9, who sustained nonlife-threatening injuries in the crash remain warded, and according to the local relatives, while Jamilla and Jeanine are reported to be stable, hospital authorities have been keeping Jamal heavily sedated.

According to reports from the Georgia State Police, Millington, of At Albans, Queens Village, and the Carryl’s and Spencer of Apopka, Florida, were travelling in Millington’s 2001 Mazda MPV from New York to Florida for a cousin’s wedding, when a Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck, driven by Michael Delph and proceeding the wrong way, slammed head-on into their vehicle, in the centre southbound lane of I-95.

Delph of Clemson, South Carolina, also perished in the crash and according to the authorities, his pick-up truck was littered with bottles of booze.

The shocking news was received by Carryl’s husband Colin, who hails from Linden, and had only arrived in Guyana on Wednesday last for an event at the Pegasus Hotel on Sunday in honour of his mother’s 75th birthday.

Unfortunately, he had to return hurriedly to New York Sunday morning.

Cyril and Michelle hail from a family of 13, namely Cecil and Cyril (twins), Edna, Earl, Ann, Jean, Grace, Michael, Ivor, Phillip, Sharon, mother of the deceased Spencer, a Bishops’ High old student, Carol and Michelle.

Spencer was also an old student of Bishop’s High School.

Speaking with the Chronicle yesterday, Carol was at a loss for words to describe the vacuum the deaths have left in the family. She however fondly remembered her dead brother as the one who took over the mantle as head of the household when their father died several years ago, leaving her, Michelle and a few others at still a tender age.

Dwight Spencer (deceased) at left, with his now injured cousins, Jamilla, Jeanine and Jamal.

Cyril, who had been living in the United States for more than 25 years, was the husband of Noreen Klass-Millington and father of two girls, while the sister of the deceased had migrated over 15 years ago, according to James.

James proudly showed this newspaper several books and other reading paraphernalia recently shipped to Guyana from Apopka Memorial Middle School, in Apopka, Florida, an initiative of the injured Jamal.

The reading material, collected as a ‘Heart of a Seed Project’, is for the library at St Ann’s Primary School, Agricola.

A New York Daily News report quoted Georgia State Trooper Chris Cuddington as saying “Alcohol is going to be a factor. There were open containers inside the pickup truck.”