By Michel Outridge

A BEL Air Village mother is in deep shock and mourning at news that her son, Carl Clarkson, called ‘Boy Blue’, was electrocuted on Sunday morning at his workplace.Marva Clarkson, of Lot 37, Second Street, Bel Air Village, told the Guyana Chronicle yesterday that the post-mortem confirmed that her son had died by electrocution.

She said that, as is customary, on Sunday morning she took lunch for her son at about 11:30hrs at his lower Robb Street, Georgetown workplace, where he was employed on contract as a mason; but she did not see him.

Clarkson said that after calling out for him and receiving no answer, two women from next door came out and asked if she was looking for ‘Boy Blue’.

After responding in the affirmative, the mother of five said, they told her he had had an accident and was at the hospital. What aroused her suspicion, however, was that they both began crying.

Clarkson said that after composing themselves, the women took her to the Public Hospital, where she saw the lifeless body of her son. Not only was it evident that he had been severely burnt, the distraught woman said, but there was blood seeping through his mouth and nose.

She said she was told that her son was standing on the second floor of the unfinished three-storey building, receiving a quantity of steel rods when a length came into contact with a live GPL power line. Such was the impact, Clarkson said she was made to understand, that it sent her son pitching into the fence on the ground floor; and though he was immediately rushed to the hospital, it was too late, as he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The woman said that that morning she did not get to speak with the contractor with whom her son had worked for the past 15 years, but he has since reached out to her.
She said he gave some money for her to hold a wake, and has pledged to help with expenses for the funeral, which is scheduled for Sunday.

Clarkson told this newspaper that ‘Boy Blue’, who had been 41, had provided for her, had been a very hard-working person, and had worked every day from early morning until late into the night.

“My son said he would not marry until I deh good, and (he) used to mind me. Now look what happen to him! Why he had to go like that?!” she cried.

‘Boy Blue’ described as a very jovial, easygoing person, had been a vegetarian.