WHILE practically everyone bought gifts, will be cooking their favourite dishes or will be having a day of fun with their fathers, all that is left with the Persaud family are the memories of their dad Danesh Persaud called “Vicky and Crink”.

Persaud was brutally cut down in a pirate attack on April 27 that claimed the lives of more than a dozen Guyanese fishermen.

Persaud, 27, who hailed from Sheet Anchor, East Canje, Berbice, was the sole breadwinner of his family. No longer in their company, his wife Tarmattie Abrahim, 29, called “Kavita” and their two children, Javen, five and Jaden, two will be spending the day quietly.

Life was never easy for Tarmattie. At the tender age of 11, she lost her mom to suicide and on the day of her mom’s funeral, she also lost her dad to similar circumstances. She and her two siblings had to fend for themselves.

Being the youngest in a family that was struggling to make ends meet, she only managed to complete nursery school and began working at age 13, picking beans, fishing, farming and doing odd jobs to support her family.

It helped in a significant way to provide for herself, her two sisters and their elderly grandmother with whom they stayed.

Her eldest sister eventually got married, but 11 months into the marriage, she too lost her life to suicide. When her other sister got married, she moved away with her husband, leaving Tarmattie to move from home to home, living with extended families until she met Danesh at age 23.

“When we meet and he hear my story, he tell me he would take care of me, let me stop work that I been through enough. We started living home together and for the first time in my life I felt safe, loved and had someone to take care of me; then it all disappeared just like that,” Tarmattie remarked, as tears trickled down her cheeks.

A month and a half since the pirate attack, she has moved from Canje fearing for her life, while noting that the place is not healthy for her children.

She now lives in a rented house.

Whatever little money she had as savings is now depleted. Her eldest son will be graduating from nursery school soon, but there is no certainty he will attend as his mother cannot afford to pay for his gown and other expenses.

Since the incident, he has not returned to school, as his mother struggles to find a way to ensure her children have a better childhood than the one she had.

“I will try my best to make sure they go to school and get an education and I will try to be there for them all the way, but I don’t know what to do because my lil son is only two and I checking around for work, but I will have to take him with me, cause I have no one here with me. Monday, I suppose to hear back from somebody that I ask for work,” she said.

Despite her situation, Tarmattie is seen giving charity and pleading with neighbours to help another family in need where she previously lived.

Her main goal, she said, is to fulfil her husband’s wish for his family to have their own home. They had applied since 2014 for a house lot but never got a response.

Since her husband’s death, hardly a day has passed in which she has not cried.

“Javen [her son] would pick up the phone in the nights and keep it and say ‘Like daddy nah get credit to call. Me try explain to him daddy nah coming back, but he still nah understand and it hard for me because when I try to explain, me an all a cry and he keep asking why,” the young mother related.

Today, Father’s Day will be tough as her husband is no more.

Tarmattie is looking for a job to support her family and persons willing to employ the young mother can contact her on cell phone number 647 7709.