Denise Quamina had to undertake one of the most difficult tasks on Wednesday evening when she returned to Chaguaramas, praying to the sea to release her son's body. Her son, Nicholas Simmons, 14, was among family members and friends who ventured into a pirogue to get to Sunday's Flugtag event at Williams Bay Chaguaramas. The boat named Bread and Butter sank. Nicholas remained missing up to late yesterday. He is presumed to have drowned.In an interview yesterday, the grieving mother who conducted the rites late Wednesday said: "It was very, very difficult for me to go into that water.
"I was really frightened, the water was by my knee, the sea was calm, but the water touched me and I became emotional," she added. It was Quamina's first venture into the water after Sunday's fiasco in which another man, Dimitri John, drowned. The boat sank at Dhien's Bay, Chaguaramas. Quamina, her daughter Jamielee Belgrave, son-in-law Kahlil Belgrave and grandson Ty Belgrave survived the ordeal. After an unsuccessful five days of searching and hoping Nicholas' body would surface, Quamina returned to the Chaguaramas to place her breast in the water and pray for the sea to release him.
The ritual is an age old religious Hindu tradition grieving relatives use to beg this element to release the entrapment of the human body, Pundit Mookram Sirjoo, former head of the Inter Religious Organisation (IRO) said yesterday. He said the ritual was also practised by members of the Baptist faith, during which special prayers and chants were said. "However, in a time of calamity, one can turn to any port, whatever you feel will work for you," he said. "Once your heart is clean and your purpose is justified and with a level of sincerity you make your request to God, God will work the element to grant you what you ask for. "This family lost a 14-year-old relative, they are hurting and they want closure...The only way to get closure is to find that body," Sirjoo added.
Quamina, a member of the Full Gospel Churches, says she understands it is a Hindu tradition, but was advised that Christians also do it. "Friends advised us to go to the sea and in Jesus' name ask Him to let Nicholas come home," she said. "We want Nicholas to come home, we want to bury him...We did not go with any priest, we went by ourselves and in the name of God asked that he be returned to us." Quamina said Lt Kirk Jean-Baptiste, of the Coast Guard, was with them on Wednesday evening, and assured that the search would continue. "I told him I believe he is trapped under the boat, but he explained that when a pirogue sinks, it sinks upright and with the strong undercurrents he would have been dislodged," she said.
"But on those boats they have all kinds of rope, nets, something may be trapping him under the water."
At a news conference held at the family's home on Wednesday, Quamina's daughter Jamielee Belgrave said the boat, which was carrying 15 people when it sank, was licensed for five passengers and was not insured.
She said they were not contemplating legal action at this time, but wanted to tell their story so this will never happen to any other family in the future. "There are no more tears we can cry...We don't blame anyone," she said. "We believe God had a plan for Nicholas and we know he is in a better place."
