Businesswoman: I’m lucky to be alive

Gertrude Solomon, a 56-year-old businesswoman of Questelles is thanking the Almighty for saving her life. She is recovering from wounds to the throat received in a bizarre turn of events last week Thursday September 16. {{more}}
She has three stitches to the throat and four in her right index finger after being on the receiving end of a most mysterious attack at her store, A & G Boutique located in the Nanton Building, on Egmont Street in Kingstown.
Solomon was discharged from the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital last Saturday after spending two days there.
“I have a lot to be thankful for,” Solomon said. The incident has shaken her up considerably, and she has been forced to admit: “You don’t know whom to trust.”
She has a message to youths today. “Don’t try to live like Michael Jordan’s son. If they need help, there are places to help them.”
She also has some advice to parents: ” Don’t just look after your girl children. Boys need attention.”
That’s how Solomon assesses the incident during which she was injured.
Nicholas Dallaway, age given as 17, a secondary school student was charged after the incident in which Solomon was attacked.
Solomon said the young man whom she claims to know, entered the premises that Thursday.
“He usually come up and buy Ginseng. He usually buy clothes for his girlfriend,” Solomon told the Searchlight at her home last Wednesday.
A devout Methodist, Solomon said that she “counselled” Dallaway who had been at the store the previous day, Wednesday 15, in his home clothes. She said he returned the following day, Thursday 16, in his school uniform.
But developments thereafter were swift. Solomon said Dallaway told her he saw some articles in the show room and wanted them put into his package. As she turned to go around the counter, Solomon said, she felt a hand around her neck and a knife to her throat.
She “hunched” the youngster, ducked, and fell to the floor. In the ensuing melee Solomon was cut, and Dallaway ran away.
“I don’t know what to say. I now see how people does get their death for nothing,” Solomon stated.
Dallaway, from New Montrose on the suburbs of capital city Kingstown, was arrested shortly after the incident that same day.
He spent the weekend in police custody, and was taken before Senior Magistrate Carl Joseph at the Number One Kingstown Magistrates’ Court Monday morning. He was not allowed to plea to the indictable charge. He was released on bail in the sum of $3000.