A thirteen-year-old girl from the Amerindian community Hosororo, North West District, on vacation with relatives at Kurukururu on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, died last Thursday, at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), after being admitted for a pain in her throat.

Dead is Jacqueline James, a student of the North West Government Secondary School. She was the daughter of Ronald James and Jacqueline O’Selmo of Hosororo Hill, located about seven miles from the Regional Administration’s Compound at Mabaruma.

Excited, and with great plans for the August vacation, the teen and her six other brothers and sisters, along with their father, arrived on their maiden visit to the capital city about three weeks ago. But little did they know her life would have been snuffed out before her return home.

The child’s father, Ronald James, said he travelled out of the North West District to seek temporary employment on the Highway, in order to be able to adequately provide the children’s requirements (books and uniforms) for the re-opening of school in September. In the meantime, the children were accommodated at relatives at Kurukururu. Pathetically, his plans were all dashed, for it had only been three days since turning on to his new job, when Jacqueline took sick and died.

It wasn’t easy, breaking the news to his wife and other relatives back home, he admitted, but he eventually did. They took the tragic news badly, and later began building her tomb, since they could not perceive her being buried anywhere else but at home.

With plans for a funeral being nowhere on the mind or in his budget when he left home, and not having earned any money since arriving in Georgetown and Kurukururu, the hapless father’s next big problem was raising approximately $100,000 to have his child’s body kept at a parlour in the city and transported by the Transport and Harbours Department steamer to the North West District for burial at home.

In order for the body to be taken home it had to be done by the once weekly steamer which was due to depart Georgetown yesterday, but he still did not know where the money was coming from. Then in the midst of his predicament, he learnt that the departure of the boat had been pushed back to today.

Realising that it was his last desperate bid, his brother-in-law, Pastor Victor Hernandes of Bumbury Hill, asked God to intercede, and the target was met.

The relatives of the deceased teen would like to thank the Government of Guyana, Mr. Desmond Correia, Mitzi Campbell, Vic Insanally and others for helping make Jacqueline’s return home possible.