A FORTY-YEAR-OLD hairdresser was early yesterday morning killed in an accident on the East Coast Demerara Railway Embankment in the vicinity of Clay Brick Road, a short distance from the Ocean View International Hotel.Dead is Lurlene Forde of Prince William Street, Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, daughter of Mrs. Iona Percival and mother of 15-year-old Sharick Singh.
The woman’s deeply distraught mother, badly shaken, but trying desperately to remain composed, spoke with the Guyana Chronicle at their Plaisance home after the accident.
Ms. Percival recalled that her daughter left home around 22:00 hrs on Wednesday evening for Palm Court, where she met with other friends at the night club. She said that from information she received, there was an incident at the entertainment spot in which a comment made by her daughter, might have offended a man at the club and incurred his wrath. The report said that the man might have been trailing her on her way home, ultimately ending up in a high-speed chase that caused her to crash into a concrete fence.
The phone began ringing persistently at 05:15 hrs and after ignoring it for a while, she got up and answered. It was her grandson calling from the United States and he cautioned her to “Sit up and relax Grannie.” Then he broke the news to her that Lurlene had crashed while coming home from the night club.
The devastated mother shared the dreadful news with Lurlene’s only child Sharick and hastened down to the hospital where she beheld her daughter’s bloodied,lifeless body.
“Her face and jaws were all strapped up. I asked permission to touch her face and it was granted. My daughter had done her hair the night before and it looked pretty, but when I saw her, she had suffered head injuries and her scalp was rolled up,” the mother painfully muttered.
Amidst tears, Ms. Percival who has mothered two children recalled that they both died in car accidents. Her son, Lloyd Forde (Jnr), son of ex- Comptroller of Customs and Excise Lloyd Forde was killed in a horrific accident in Georgetown 20 years ago. Now the life of her only surviving offspring had been coldly snuffed out. The grieving mother recalled that just before Christmas she was down with the flu and the fuss Lurlene made about it, telling her, “Mommy I don’t want anything to happen to you, cause I would not be able to live without you.”
Less than two months later, she has passed on, leaving her mother to live without her.