Poor child!

Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer

The freakish manner in which five-year-old Tashanna Wallace met her tragic end on Wednesday night is still fresh in the mind of her grandmother, Jerdene Muir.

Muir, who is hypertensive, collapsed afterwards, having narrowly escaped injury in the mishap.

"I hear the roar and everything just tear down on her. Everything knock down and come over, so mi bawl fi help and murder."

Help was immediate as the other people living in the yard at Banga Gully, Christian Pen, in St Catherine, including relatives, responded but it was too late.

In addition to what the 44-year-old Muir described as a big tree, rescuers had to contend with debris from the destroyed house, the effort taking almost an hour.

"All now I can't come to it because is mi little granddaughter weh very friendly," Muir said.

Mother shocked

Kadesha 'Delly' McKenzie, Tashanna's mother, who was in the building next door when the tragedy occurred, has not yet come to grips with what happened.

"How mi frighten last night mi don't go roun' there 'cause mi caan bear fi go see har. Mi nuh go out there," she told The Gleaner.

She said the child's father, Alfredo Wallace, was inconsolable. Just half an hour before the tragedy, Wallace had sent a text message to McKenzie with whom he also has a 10-year-old son, Oshane, because he did not have any phone credit.

When she, in turn, called Wallace, he asked how they were coping with the inclement weather and given the assurance that all was well said, "All right, kiss mi baby fi mi till mawning."

When The Gleaner contacted him by telephone on Thursday (yesterday), a more composed Wallace said: "Mi little daughter, she not even live nuh life yet, or none them thing deh, so mi haffi feel hurt. She nuh reach nuh weh yet."