Nanton still trying to cope with the loss of her daughter

It’s been over five years since her daughter’s life was viciously snatched away from her, but Emelia Nanton is still trying to fit the pieces of her shattered life back together.{{more}}

Just moments after Shorn Samuel successfully appealed his murder conviction and sentence at the High Court last Thursday, Nanton, in an exclusive interview with SEARCHLIGHT, said “I just have to accept things that I can’t change…”.

Stacy Wilson’s life was cut short on December 11, 2006 at the Leeward Bus Terminal, after Samuel pulled her from a minivan and beheaded her in view of hundreds of people, shortly after 3:00 p.m.

Samuel’s initial sentence of death by hanging was last week substituted by life imprisonment, after two psychiatrists agreed that at the time of the killing, Samuel was suffering from a mental disorder.

However, Nanton is not buying that at all.

“I know Shorn is not crazy, but I just have to accept what was said. Part of the national anthem says that what e’er the future brings, our faith will see us through, and that is what I always lean on,” she added.

According to Nanton, since her daughter’s death, her life has been up and down. “Sometimes, it will be just normal and then sometimes I might cook something that she liked and all the memories just come back… sometimes my son, Jamal (seven years old) would still ask me about Stacy…,” Nanton said.

On the morning just before she attended court for Samuel’s appeal hearing, Nanton said Jamal asked if they were going to “take Shorn off of hanging”. “I told him yes, and he usually watches this show on his laptop with a bunny that shoots his enemies with an arrow and he said that is for Shorn….”

Nanton said she does not want her son to grow up with that kind of attitude and has told him on several occasions to leave everything in God’s hands.

“I don’t want to be dead and gone and Jamal out here holding onto them kinda things; I really don’t want that,” she said.

She said she is often saddened by the thoughts of what her daughter could have been and could have accomplished today. Nanton said Stacy was a person who was genuine in all her ways and always went out of her way to help others. She stated that Stacy even had plans to pursue studies at university, but would often shy away from the idea because she did not want leave her mother and brother behind.

However, it is the good memories that Stacy left behind that help Nanton get through her worst days. She admitted that while sitting in the courtroom, mixed emotions were flowing through her. “My mind was just telling me to leave he (Samuel) to God. Other times now, I been thinking that I wish I had invisible gun that nobody could see when I raise my hand and just bullet the man, to be honest..,” she revealed.

Nanton said she was told that Samuel wanted to speak to her. When asked what her reply was, Nanton said, “Over my dead body! I won’t entertain talking to him. Let him talk to God. I could say I forgive him, but deep within my heart, that might not be the case…I can’t really say if I have forgiven him,” Nanton continued.