VALDEEN SHEARS
Just a glimpse at a simple box of corn flakes sometimes cause a flood of emotions so strong for one Point Fortin mother that she is driven to uncontrollable tears. She's flooded with memories of her smiling two-year-old, and her grief knows no bounds. She sees him in every long-haired toddler and she's crippled with emotions.
For Terri Hinds, a single mother of six, the only balms to soothe her still breaking heart are closure and justice.These things, however, continue to elude her as the inquest into the death of her son Jahem Devon Adams remains lagging in the courts since 2009."Please, somebody...anybody...tell me what to do. I am even appealing to the Prime Minister (Kamla Persad-Bissessar), as a mother and a grandmother of infant children, to help me get the closure and justice I so badly need to move on with my life.
"How would you feel if your beautiful baby grandson had been snatched from you suddenly and violently and you had gotten no justice, no answers?" she asked, tears running down her face as she looked at her son's photos.These photos are taken out once every year, in love on his birthday (January 8), but they are often looked at in pain, because each time she attends court the matter is simply adjourned.
Hinds feels as if her baby is being brutally and unjustifiably exhumed each time she faithfully goes to court only to hear that the witnesses or some piece of evidence was not at hand to begin the inquest.
Hinds' ordeal started six years ago when, like any other day, her children went up the hill from her home at Egypt Trace, Point Fortin, to play. They were just a stone's throw away from her front door. She would sit at her front door looking up at the hill, with the knowledge and comfort that the street is hardly ever traversed by heavy vehicular activity and that the neighbourhood still lives by the mantra–"it takes a village to raise a child."
Her home is located down a short hill and the yard is very uneven and unpaved. On rainy days, the yard turns to mud and on sunny days, the dust makes it difficult for her children to play. The top of the hill, she explained, was usually their only source of recreation and a respite from the television.
It was also a happy home, where her youngest at the time, four-month-old Jade, was delivered into the loving arms of her father, Devon, who left the family's home shortly after Jahem's death. The relationship between the couple became strained after Jahem's death.Baby Jahem was his only son at that time and the apple of his eye, she recalled sadly.
"I could hear them playing. It was like any other ordinary day. They were laughing, playing skip or hop-scotch or some game. They were so close, and it was something that was as normal as me baking bread. Then I heard screaming and crying," she recalled.Now, forever etched in Hinds' memory is the day she was holding her baby in her arms as he took his last breath.
A young driver had allegedly plowed into the group of unsuspecting children as he attempted to maneuver his way back down the hill with his van. Baby Jahem's traumatised siblings, ranging from age 11 to five, at the time of the incident, watched helplessly as their baby brother struggled for his life under the wheels of a Hilux van.
"Jahem would have been eight years old this year, and I would have been preparing for him, along with my other children, for the new school term. His sisters and brother misses him. We remember him every year for his birthday and I try not to let them hear me when it overcomes me, but my home is small and this is often difficult. I have shed too many tears to count and just want to really, truly feel as if my child's life is worth more than 'roadkill', like some animal knocked down and forgotten on a roadside," she stated.
What makes Hinds' case even sadder is that the matter is at its first stage–an inquest–and she has been advised that she cannot seek legal representation. The torn and tormented mother of six is seeking the advice of attorneys in this country to tell her if this is indeed so.The matter was last heard in the Point Fortin Second Magistrate's Court on June 7 and adjourned to September 11, 2015. However, according to Hinds, the new date will mark approximately the ninth time it is being called, and before at least five different magistrates.