Grief-stricken family still grappling with their loss

TEN months after the gruelling death of six-year-old Glenshaun Skeete, killed by a falling goal post on the Plaisance Play Ground, his parents and siblings continue to be consumed by grief with each passing day. The memories are haunting and the pain runs deep, his grief-stricken mother, Stacey Skeete told the Pepperpot Magazine on Wednesday.

“It’s a loss we cannot get over and every day the pain grows sharper…His siblings are asking questions and every time I have to deal with it, it’s like adding salt to a fresh wound,” the grieving mother sobbed. “That he was killed is horrifying enough, but when you think about the way in which he died, heaven forbid.”

The six-year-old Glenshaun Skeete, a student of St. Paul’s Primary School, Plaisance, met his death on September 27, 2017, when he was struck in the back by a falling iron goal post. A post-mortem examination performed by Pathologist, Dr. Neehaul Singh determined that he died of trauma to the heart.

His mother, who was in her ninth month of pregnancy at the time, became hysterical and inconsolable on receiving the news, even as her husband and others tried to calm her. About one week later (on October 5), Stacey gave birth to a baby girl who is now 10 months old, but even though she cherishes her newborn, the death of Glenshaun has created a void that cannot be filled, she lamented.

The Skeetes are laying the blame for the death of their child squarely on his school which had taken him to the ground to take part in practice for school sports. On being told of the upcoming event, both parents insisted that he should not take part and that information was communicated to the teacher.

However, the teacher allegedly threatened to flog him if he did not take part, and so, out of fear he joined the rest of the class and proceeded to the playground. It was while there that he met his demise.

The parents are now seeking justice for the loss of their child. They claim that even though the Ministry of Education paid for the burial of the child, they are still demanding justice, particularly since she claims that she has been given the ‘royal run-around’ and was treated shabbily on her visits to the ministry in an attempt to speak with the competent authorities. She said she was made to write a letter to which she has still not received a reply.

The Pepperpot Magazine was unable to reach an education official for a comment.

The child was buried on October 3, at Clay Brick Road, Plaisance after a moving funeral service at the Plaisance Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Skeete is adamant that had the child been killed while under her watch, the Child Protection Agency (CPA) would have taken away the other siblings from her.

“I am insisting that I have not received any justice for my child’s death. They took my child out of school without my consent and now they are not telling me anything. I want justice for my child,” the distraught mother pleaded.

Skeete is a housewife who does not earn an income and has more than a fair share of trials with which to contend, and says she feels it is unfair that she should be going through such trials.

“We all miss my son; he was such a loving child. Throughout my pregnancy, he would get up early every morning and pick cherries or whatever fruits in season and make juice for me. And every day he would pick a flower and bring it for me. That was the kind of child I’ve lost, so it’s not easy to get over his death,” Stacey said.

Meanwhile, being born and brought up into a close-knit family, the siblings have also been taking their brother’s death badly. “Is every now and then I have to contend with somebody sobbing in a corner of the house or somewhere in the yard. Just a few nights ago, his brother Glenkacia woke up crying and related that his heart continues burning for his brother,” she said.

But what was even more painful, the grief-stricken mother said, was when four-year-old Jewel, apparently in desperation said to her mother: “Mommy, why you don’t let me, you, baby (10 months), Glenkacia (8) , Tequan 12, and Tyrece (14) go over at the playground and let the goal post fall ‘pon we, then we gon all go to heaven and meet Glensaun there and we gon all be happy.”

Another brother who was at the time preparing for the NGSA Exams was
traumatised and having taken his brother’s death so badly, did not do well at his exams and so his parents made a decision to send him to the home of an elder brother in Berbice where he could get some individual attention and improve his grades. “As a matter of fact it is affecting every body’s performance,” Skeete said.

Those are just some of the reactions to her son’s death that she has to deal with, coming from the other siblings.

“In fact, it’s like old house pon old house because in the midst of all this, we have to deal with finding a house to move to in the near future and we don’t even have land to build on. You see me here, is only God know how I am standing on my feet and thank God for a supportive husband because it’s really hard,” the distraught mother said.