Bittersweet Mother's Day
Published:Sunday | May 9, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
MOTHER'S DAY will never be the same for Perdie Newman whose daughter was murdered almost two years ago. The mother of six no longer looks forward to the day that celebrates motherhood with the great anticipation she used to when her daughter was alive.
But, because of the joy her other children bring her; today is a bittersweet one for her.
Like thousands of other mothers who have lost children to senseless acts of violence in Jamaica - darkly described as the 'island of music and murder' - Mother's Day is painful.
Newman's daughter, Nadia Mitchell was murdered on July 16, 2008, which in a sad twist of irony was Nadia's father's birthday.
"Some years, she was the only girl who remembered me on Mother's Day. It was a special day for her to be with me.
"Even if it is for an hour or two, she would drive from Kingston to St Elizabeth," she said during a telephone interview from her home in the hills of Lacovia, St. Elizabeth.
"When the other daughters would forget to call or be with me on Mother's Day, Nadia never forgot to call or be with me. She was special," Newman said of her daughter who was killed when she was 27 years old.
The last Mother's Day they celebrated together was in the year she died. Nadia gave her mother a plaque and also took her to a luncheon she and other friends staged for their mothers.
Even this precious memory seems hard for her. "It was in the same complex where she was murdered. I remember it was on the other block."
Newman told The Sunday Gleaner that she will not be the only one missing Nadia this Mother's Day. Her 12-year-old granddaughter will have to spend another Mother's Day without her Mom.
At this point in the interview, it was clear Newman was not winning the battle against her emotions. "I have prayed hard and long for the dear Lord to help me to express my disgust not as outrageously as I used to," Newman said.
She added: "I have begged my God to help me let go of the thoughts of revenge."
Daughter's tomb
Nadia was buried on the family plot in St Elizabeth on the same property where Newman lives. For some six months after her daughter's burial, Newman slept on her daughter's tomb.
"When I get up in the morning, I would take my pillow, go lay my head where her head is and go back to sleep," Newman recalled.
"She is buried at the feet of my mother. I can stand on my veranda and see her every day."
Mitchell's murder case is still before the courts. But even after the case ends, Newman believes closure is an impossible dream.
"When you lose a loved one, brutally, you never have closure. They say the pain will subside (but) it never goes away. It just sits. The emptiness never goes away. It's just the grace of God that carries me through," Newman said.