The death of their nine-month-old baby girl is the second baby that Fyzabad couple Samatha Sinanan and Christopher Ramsaroop have lost in two years.
Looking dazed as she spoke with Guardian Media yesterday at her Fyzabad home, 23-year-old Sinanan said it is a difficult time for the entire family.
Sinanan’s common-law husband, an electrician, was out making preparations for the second night of the wake.
She explained that around 3 am she fed her daughter, Sariah Ramsaroop, and put her on the bed to sleep.
There is only one room in their humble home at St John Branch Trace, Avocat and baby Sariah slept between her parents.
Her husband got up 8.17 am on Saturday, according to a police report, and noticed that baby Sariah was cold and unresponsive. She was lying on her belly.
Sinanan was already up and preparing a bottle for Sariah when her husband told her that she was still asleep “and come and see what was going on.”
Sinanan said she finished the bottle and then went to pick up her baby. But, she noticed that her daughter’s hand was stiff and her body was cold.
“I say that was the end of it,” she said.
Sinanan’s husband then alerted their relatives.
Nine-month-old Baby Sariah Ramsaroop.
“When I realised the baby was not alive he (husband) ran up the hill and he call he mom and everybody come down to see what going on because it was like a shocking thing to know that this come and happen so soon because she so healthy and strong.”
She said Sariah’s loss has left an emptiness in their home and lives.
“Everything we missing. Because every morning six o’clock she is go up the hill. I does miss how she does call mama and dada.”
She said her death also brought back devastating memories of when she lost her baby boy Kaylum back in February 2020. She had him at the San Fernando General Hospital, but he was a still-birth.
“It hard, it really hard,” said a soft-spoken Sinanan.
She said she was excited about her baby’s first birthday on August 6.
“I had real plans for my daughter,” she said.
An autopsy is expected to be done this week at the mortuary at the San Fernando General Hospital.
Officers of the Oropouche Police Station are investigating.
The family home where nine-month-old Sariah Ramsaroop was found dead in her bed on St. John Branch Trace, Avocat on Saturday.
RISHI RAGOONATH