RONDELL Beresford Ally, 14, drowned yesterday afternoon after making a trip to the riverside, along with some other friends. According to reports, Rondell, of 251 No. 2 Scheme, Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara, and another friend from the same village, went to the Uitvlugt koker where Rondell and the other teen plunged into the water. The teen surfaced, but Rondell did not.
Speaking to the media yesterday, while sitting at the front stairway to her home, his grandmother, 78, Judith Elcock, said that she was still at a loss to figure out what called her grandson to the area where he drowned. She said he couldn’t swim well.
She said that her Rondell was at home all day but at noon decided that he was going to hang out at his friends. She said that she did not object to this, since he usually goes by his friends. The woman added that as the child was leaving the home she asked him to purchase some batteries and a bulb, giving him $400.
Sometime later, some young boys came running to her with the tragic news. She said that she was told that “Rondell and another boy went into the water and the other boy came up but Rondell did not come up back”.
Rondell Beresford Ally attended the Uitvlugt Secondary school and was expected to enter Form 3 come Monday. Asked about the kind of person the lad was known to be, his relatives said that he was honest, loving and obedient. He was also described a child who performed fairly well in school.
The young man’s mother and two other brothers reside in the United States while his father lives in the village. Asked why he is not with the rest of his siblings and his mother, the grandmother said that the now dead teen’s mother recently went overseas and was in the process of having him join her and his two brothers.
There were unconfirmed reports that the children were plunging from the lower part of the Koker into the river while others say that they were jumping from the topmost part of the structure. Yesterday relatives said that the location where the 14 year old met his death is known for taking lives and persons in the community often warn their children against swimming there.