Palo Seco mother Josanne Charles closed her eyes for only a minute as she held her five month-old baby, Samayah, close to her chest while they headed home in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
Within that short space of time the 34-year-old Charles's life would change forever, as the car she was travelling in crashed around 2.30 am along the SS Erin Road, Palo Seco, instantly killing her baby and PH taxi driver John Lee Apping.
Yesterday Charles, who has two other children, speaking with T&T Guardian in a telephone interview, admitted she was still trying to come to terms with her baby's death. "It real hard. I trying to be strong. I trying not to study it," she said. Charles was discharged from the San Fernando General Hospital on Thursday so she could attend her baby's funeral, which was planned for yesterday.
However the family had to postpone the funeral as they were unable to register her death in time. Instead Samayah will be laid to rest this afternoon at Los Bajos Cemetery, after the funeral at her home at Palo Seco Road, Palo Seco. Charles said she could only recall small portions of the fatal crash on Saturday, but said she is trying not to think about it too much.
"I know she was sleeping in my arms. I closed my eyes for a minute and it happened so fast. The next thing I remember was when they pull me out of the car and I was on the grass. I get up and was asking for her and nobody tell me anything. They take me to the hospital. I have not been able to see her as yet," she lamented.
Charles said she has to return to hospital on Monday, when she is expected to undergo surgery for injuries to both her arms suffered in Saturday's crash. While not in much physical pain, Charles said she is hurting for her baby, who would have been six months old next week. She said her two other children, Renisha, four, and Josiah, two, do not fully understand their baby sister is dead.
"They keep telling me Samayah is in heaven. They don't know what that means," she said. Charles said she is not sure how she will be able to handle today's funeral, since both of her arms are in casts and she may not be able to hold her baby one last time.
"I want to hug her, I want to hug my children, but I cannot," she lamented yesterday. Yesterday baby Samayah's grandmother Merlin Charles confirmed the service was postponed because they were unable to register baby Samayah's death after her autopsy on Thursday at the Forensic Sciences Centre in St James.
Pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov ruled that baby Samayah did not drown, as was initially suspected by police, but instead died from multiple blunt-force injuries consistent with a car accident. Investigations are continuing.