-wife had premonition something dire about to happen
A LINDEN woman who had a premonition that disaster was about to strike because of some ‘funny’ dreams she’d been having lately saw it unfold late yesterday when fire of yet unknown origin razed her home in the bauxite mining community leaving her family of seven homeless.
The house in question belonged to Kester Francis and his wife, Paulette Thom-Francis who’d left to worship at the Bethel Seventh Day Adventist Church earlier in the day with their children.
According to reports, everything was fine when the family left for church around 09:00hrs, even when the father returned shortly after 14:00hrs to change his clothes.
However, some 10 to 15 minutes after leaving to attend other Church activities, he was told that his house, a two-storey edifice, was on fire and by the time the Fire Service was alerted and arrived everything was lost according to eyewitnesses.
Those left homeless besides Francis and his wife are their five children, namely Michaela, 18; Shondell, 14; Ivory, 12; Juliana, eight; and Julene, six.
As Francis observed: “I came home from church around 2pm and change and headed back to church… And when I left, everything was as per normal; it was about ten minutes after I left here that the fire was discovered. ”
His declaration that the house does not have electricity as yet effectively rules out any suspicion that the fire may have been electrical in origin.
Giving an account of the family’s arrangements for the day, wife Paulette said:
“To be truthful, the children left the house before us. Me and my husband left home after nine o’clock and we went to church. Normally, my husband does come home and go back to church, but like yesterday, he did not want to come home, and so I trouble he to go home and change.”
Still with the story, she said: “We were gaffing from one thing to the other with the two small girls and then he said: ‘Babes, I going home. And I said: Try come back in time for Adventist Youth activity,’ as he might have to play the keyboard for the children. He said: ‘Alright, I will go quick and come back.’”
She recalled neighbours telling her they saw when her husband “passed back up the road,” and that the fire seemingly started in one of the bedrooms after he’d left.
Reflecting on some of the losses the family has incurred due to the fire, Paulette said: “We had a computer … a tape set… We had everything… our married certificate…” The children’s school reports also went up in the flames as well as their birth certificates among other important documents. “We lost everything,” Paulette lamented, close to tears.
She also recalled the struggle the family endured to put a roof over their heads. “When I wasn’t serving God, I struggled to build my house. And since I start serving God, the church came and built my home. My church members came and do this house.”
It was at this point that she recalled the funny dreams she’s been having of late.
“I was getting some funny dreams lately that some disaster will happen in this street. Just suh I telling me neighbour some big disaster gon happen, because of the funny dreams. And I said we got to keep praying. Right here we did sit down and I tell she.”
She’s also told her husband about the dreams. “I tell Kester I getting some funny dreams, and I don’t like how I feeling, like something wrong.”
When this newspaper visited the scene, the destruction was evident. Nothing was saved, except the remnants of a kerosene stove, the computer, which the husband had only purchased last week, some kitchen utensils and a few pieces of burnt clothing.