Tragedy at Buccament – 12 years ago and still feeling pain

The front and back pages of the February 2, 1996 edition of the SEARCHLIGHT newspaper dealt with banana industry and illiteracy – two serious issues!

The social and economic ramifications that accompany a dying banana industry – once the lifeblood of the economy cannot be slighted.{{more}}

And the importance of having a literate society needs no explanations.

But when SEARCHLIGHT journeyed to Upper Edinboro recently, on a rainy Saturday afternoon, the tears that were flowing intermittingly from the eyes of the people we visited related to that edition of the newspaper, but had nothing to do with banana or illiteracy.



The source of their pain was featured on page four.

Christine Cupid Guy, then 37 years old, left behind her five children, including two girls not yet five years old, when she became the second road fatality for 1996.

She succumbed to injuries she sustained when on the night of Sunday, January 28, the jeep in which she was a passenger ran over a bank in the Buccament Bay area and hooked up on a tree.

Six persons were in the jeep, but while the others, including Christine’s sister Debra and her then two year old son survived, life wasn’t so kind to Christine.

“I can’t remember her, but sometimes I get flashbacks of me and my sister fighting to sleep next to her on the bed,” said Bisa Cupid 15, who ironically is a third form student of the Buccament Bay Secondary school.

Bisa was almost three years old when her mother died, and both she and her sister Iana, now 18, were raised by their aunt, their mother’s sister Michelle.

“When I watched my cousins with their mother going places it hurt… she (Michelle) did her best, but I realize that without a mother I missed out on something,” said Bisa, who describes herself as an “alright” student and plans to pursue a career in law.

“I want children who have their mothers to love and cherish them because you never know when you could lose her,” said Iana.

Debra, who is in the last month of a pregnancy, could hardly keep her balance as she tried to stand up and recall the night of the accident.

The group had gone to Petit Bordel with friends and were returning home when it happened.

Sadness fused with anger as she claimed that they made several stops for drinks on their way up, which when added to the fact that the driver was speeding – proved to be a deadly mix.

“I just heard Christine say “oh God” – she grabbed her belly and almost collapsed as the memories flooded back – “and the jeep went over the bank and started rolling down the cliff.”

Debra’s son Kevin fell out of her arms in the process.

“The jeep hooked up on a tree and I crawl out, I found Kevin, and started looking for Christine.”

When she found her, she was wringing in pain, hooked up on a rock, Debra explained, as her niece Iana grimaced as though she were there in that jeep experiencing the accident which took her mother away.

“It is still sad. it still hurts…my life has been good, but I can’t help but wonder…” said Iana, who works at a restaurant.

She also credits her aunt Michelle for doing her best to raise her and her sister.

“My mother had 15 children and Christine was the second, so she helped almost all of us. she was kind and loving, so I had to do what I could for her children,” said Michelle who also took over the running of Christine’s shop, Number 25, at Little Tokyo.

Life’s tragic happenings usually shape those affected – some negatively, and others, with the right support, are able to survive.

Michelle, herself a mother of seven, told SEARCHLIGHT that the family was determined to make sure that the latter was true of her sister’s children, especially her nieces.

“They grow up good. They haven’t turned out bad,” Michelle mused.



She said that she usually makes sure that they remember that they must live and honour the memory of their mother.

The three boys, Dwight, 31, Sunil, 28, and Jomal, also in his twenties, all work hard and look out for their sisters, Michelle said.

The family, however, told SEARCHLIGHT that they are confused as to what took place with the investigation into the accident.

“We went to court in Layou a couple times, but that was it. We don’t know what happened with the case,” Debra said.

She also told SEARCHLIGHT that the brother of the driver of the jeep, who was at the time dating her sister, who was also in the jeep at the time of the accident, had promised to assist the girls, but never followed through.