A mother's pain - Daughter not around to bask in GSAT success
Published:Monday | June 27, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Angelo Laurence. Gleaner Writer
MANDEVILLE, Manchester:
STACEY-ANNE STEWART-Swaby, mother of Brittney Anderson, who died in April, is still trying to come to grips with the fact that her daughter will not be around to don her Bishop Gibson High School uniform come September.
Brittney, a former student of Emmanuel Kinder Preparatory School, was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor on April 14, only days after celebrating her eleventh birthday and two weeks after sitting her Grade Six Achieve-ment Test (GSAT).
Despite feeling ill, she remained focused on attending the school of her choice, Bishop Gibson High. When the GSAT results were announced, as predicted by Brittney, she was placed at the school.
A promising, bright, loving, polite and caring child is how Stewart-Swaby described Brittney when she spoke with The Gleaner from her desk at the National Land Agency in Mandeville, where she is the manager.
Showing a picture of a smiling Brittney in her blue school uniform, Stewart-Swaby fought to maintain her composure as she chronicled the path that led up to Brittney's death.
Wiping her face, she said: "I was devastated when they told me the tumor was inoperable." Calling on her faith in God, Stewart-Swaby said she still had hope that life for her daughter would not be short-lived and that proposed radiation treatment would reduce the tumor to a manageable level.
multiple misdiagnoses
However, that was not to be, as the date for the first radiation treatment at the Cornwall Regional Hospital, in St James, was months away, and the $1.5 million needed to have it done at a private institution was not readily available.
Managing a smile as she thumbed through a stack of pictures and awards of Brittney's, the grieving mother paused for a moment before proclaiming, "I am still questioning God, why?"
Dismissing her signature smile, a serious Stewart-Swaby, with what could be interpreted as a tinge of anguish, lamented the weeks of misdiagnosis of her daughter's illness by a number of doctors.
What seemed to have irritated her most was when, at one point, she was told by a medical professional that her daughter was "faking" her illness. While not blaming anyone for her daughter's death on April 20, she is, however, less than satisfied with the efforts made in getting to the root of the problems about which Brittney complained.
In a garden of flowers "she would be a rose", said Stewart-Swaby proudly of her daughter, adding that if it were not for her faith in God, family and husband, she "could not cope and would not want to live".
She told The Gleaner that she has a son who was born in March of this year, and there is peace in her heart that Brittney is happy in the arms of God.