On Sunday afternoon, in intermittent light rain, they were finishing two graves for a mother and son killed in a vicious attack at their home in Linton Park, St Ann on Tuesday, August 28.
Dead are 31-year-oldAlleshaFrancis and 12-year-old Jahmarnie Jackson.
Ms Francis and her three children were attacked as they returned from a neighbourhood shop. The attacker, Orville ‘Bull’ Scarlett, with whom she had ended a relationship months before, was later hacked to death by a mob.
Two of the woman’s children – a boy and a girl – survived Scarlett’s attack. The boy, ten-year-old, Jahmarley Francis suffered the savage attack of the man who killed his mother and a brother. He has deep mental and physical scars and is healing slowly.
He’s yet to return to school, so is his six-year-old sister who escaped, without physical wounds, by running to another yard after Jahmarley ran through bushes to a neighbour’s house to save his own life.
On Sunday, October 14, a day before what would have been the 33rd birthday of Allesha Francis, community members were at a grave digging to set down her body and that of one of her two boys. The graves were already blocked up; joined with a door between them. One grave was smaller for Jahmarnie, and the other for his mother.
The spouse of the Ms Francis, Algreen Jackson was doing some raking of red dirt around the graves that were being rendered. He said it has not been easy. He has had to bear all the emotional strains and financial issues in trying to keep together what’s left of his immediate family.
That means travel to St Ann’s Bay, a good 50 kilometers away, and also to Kingston where Jahmarley is continuing to get treatment. The boy has also been receiving counselling from a government agency in St Ann’s Bay.
More appointments this week are part of the treatment at Bustamante Children’s Hospital. Still to come is surgery to the young boy’s upper lip to keep the alignment, ruptured by the machete’s blade that sank into his face, leaving an eight inch scar. Plus there is need for an examination of an ear. The family is pleased with the care.
There were other awful wounds as Orville Scarlett o/c Bull tried to kill Jahmarley. There was a wound to the back of the head, one across the shoulder, as her ran. Another that took away the fingers of one of his hands. Later, the doctors have assured the father, prosthesis will help to replace the function and loss of fingers.
NO SCHOOL
In spite of it all, the young man has been doing well, says his grandmother Yvonne Redman. She heard his shouts and the screams of his mother on the night they were attacked. In fact only minutes earlier she had been with her daughter before the attack. “Him doing well, eating and all that,” she said.
Mr Jackson has kept the two surviving children out of school although he knows they are ready to return. Forcing a smile, the youngster told The North Coast Times “I am ready I want to go back.” After all, this year he is one of the candidates for PEP.
His father understands the concerns of the teachers too that he is missing out on vital lessons and prep for PEP. An attempt to get him tutored while out of school has failed. But Mr Jackson, is not ready to send them back just yet.
Standing at the front of a closed shop, having rice and peas and chicken, prepared by friends of the family, for the work crew doing the graves, Mr Jackson was thankful to all. Meanwhile, he says the community support has been good even though much of it is just talking and encouragement. He told The Times he welcomes support that would help the family with its mounting bills because of the violence.
The funeral service for AlleshaFrancis and 12-year-old Jahmarnie Jackson takes place at the New Testament Church Linton Park (Bush Mouth) on Saturday, October 20, beginning at noon.
