Like most Vincentians the Christmas season was a joyous time for the Ashton family of South Rivers and the New Year was to be a period of great expectations but last Friday joy turned to sorrow for this family and their hopes dashed as they struggled to come to grips with the death of a loved one.

While playing in the house of a relative which is under construction, a few blocks came crashing down on five-year-old Reneka Ashton killing her on the spot on Friday, December 29 at about 3:45 pm.{{more}} Reports claim that a line was attached to the blocks and children in the neighbourhood sometimes use it for swinging. Reneka not knowing the danger involved is said to have been swinging on it at the time of her death.

A post mortem conducted on the body of the former South Rivers Methodist Kindergarten student on Tuesday, January 2, disclosed that she died as a result of a fractured skull and broken neck.

Reminiscing the frightful drama, which proved to be real Reneka’s grieving mother Beverly Ashton, told SEARCHLIGHT: “I heard my daughter call me. She said ‘Bev! Bev! Come, come, Ren Ren dead’. I felt so shocked I did not believe. I wished the news was not right.”

“When I go I met her lying in a pool of blood. The blocks were already taken off her head,” said the mother of five. Reneka was her fourth child.

“Since her death I can’t sleep nor eat,” Ashton cried.

Muriel Walters, though not a relative to Reneka felt love for the lass as if she was one of her own.

“I am like a granny to Reneka. I can’t even express how I feel. I was on my way to a funeral when I got the news. I almost died from this tragedy,” recalled the elderly woman who shared fond memories of witnessing Reneka’s birth and having to hustle to get someone to cut her umbilical cord.

Jeffrey Ashton, a cousin of Reneka who owns the house where she died said it appeared that the children were swinging on the line for a long time.

“I feel bad because all of them children use to be here playing,” said Ashton.

Reneka will be buried on Sunday.