CHILLING and devastating as an armed robbery attack might have been on a bride-to-be on the eve of her wedding day, it certainly did not prevent 45-year-old Corlette Lyken of Granville Park, East Coast Demerara, from tying the nuptial knot with the love of her life, Patrick Ramdad on Saturday. Even though the bride and two others who were part of the horrifying experience remained badly traumatized, the wedding went ahead as planned.

In fact the bride now has at least two things to thank God for – sparing her life and the lives of her son Kevin, whom she had just picked up at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, and her sister Dawn, who was with them when they were attacked. Secondly, she is thanking God for not allowing the sordid development to prevent or cause a postponement of her marriage to Patrick, a Trinidadian national working in Guyana.

Family members and friends gasped when they learnt that just the day before her planned wedding, Corlette Lyken, who works with a local commercial bank, had gone through such a horrifying experience.

It was around 3:00hrs Friday and the two women had just returned from the CJIA where they had gone to meet 27-year-old Kevin who had travelled from Canada for his mother’s wedding. On reaching home, the women claimed, they honked their horn, but the security who appeared to have been asleep, never responded.

After they did not see the guard, Corlette jumped out of the car and was heading for the gate when, without warning, a motor car drove up, and three men, armed with weapons, pounced on them and held them at gun point.

Cautioning the family to keep quiet, the men demanded that they hand over everything they had on them. The trio were too terrified to resist, or even try to sound an alarm. The men then stripped them of the valuables they had on them, including a quantity of jewellery, a lap-top computer, three cellular phones, a Sony camera and $240,000 then escaped. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
The security guard is said to be assisting the police with their investigations.