Tragic end of year for Spring Village family

Romario Marson should have begun his second term as a first form student this week.

Instead, family and friends are preparing to lay the

former student of the Troumaca Ontario Secondary School to rest.{{more}}

The 13-year-old wanted to spend ‘Old Years’ with his aunt Leslyn at her Mount Bentick, Bay Road, Georgetown, home before returning to his Corner, Spring Village, home on St. Vincent’s Leeward coast.

He had spent the Christmas holidays with Leslyn and her family and was enjoying himself.

At the time of his death, he was on his way to meet his grandmother in capital Kingstown before returning to the country.

He was accompanied by his friend, 15-year-old Orel Massiah, who was also in the vehicle when it overturned, taking Romario’s life.

Shantel, as Orel is called, said that young Romario was sitting in the third row directly behind her when the accident took place. She was sitting behind the conductor’s seat.

“I just heard a sound and the van just shift,” she recalled when Searchlight visited her and Leslyn one day after the tragedy.

“And after I just feel the van go up in the air and the van start to tumble.”

“I come out after it stopped and I see people all around the van and under the van, but I didn’t see Romario.”

Shantel, who suffered injuries to her head, neck, ribs and some bruises, said that she later saw her friend lying in the middle of the Argyle road and then called his aunt.

“When I call Leslyn, she was shocked to hear that we reach there so quick,” Shantel, a fifth former at the Georgetown Secondary School, said.

Aunt Leslyn said that the time in which the van ‘Big One’ reached Argyle was not her only surprise, but also the death of her ward.

The boy’s aunt, showing visible pain on losing her nephew, said she would miss him dearly.

She had wept uncontrollably at the site of the accident the previous day and was at a loss for words in describing how she felt about Romario and how he met his death.

“I love him a lot. He is gone but we won’t forget him,” she lamented.

“He was a good mannerly boy who loved life.”

This sentiment was shared by Leslyn’s sister, Romario’s mother, Vasita Derby, who works at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, and was present when her son’s body came in.

“It was about minutes to one when I get the phone call and somebody say to me that is Romario who dead,” said Derby, a female attendant at the hospital.

“Tears wash down my face. It was real hard for me,” she said.

Derby said that she feels an immeasurable amount of hurt with her son’s passing.

She described the muscular youngster as a very active and energetic youth who was always happy and willing to help people.

“I am very, very sad about it. I feel so hurt about my son who I struggle to raise.”

“But the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,” Derby said.

Young Romario had a 16-year-old brother Akeemo and was the son of Henry Hope.

He was scheduled to be laid to rest today in Spring Village.