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TEARS CAN'T STOP PAIN - Family mourns death of 5-y-o

By WANDEKA GAYLE, Staff Reporter

Sushana, (left)with her younger sister, Shania, were said to be inseparable growing up.

COVER PHOTO (pic with mother and daughter at home)

Seven-year-old Sushana, distraught over the death of her five-year-old sister Shania, who broke her neck after falling from a washtub, sits with her mother,Maxine Davis, at their home at Delacree Park, Kingston.

SEVEN-YEAR-OLD SUSHANA Blackwood may need counselling to cope with the loss of her five-year-old sister, Shania, who broke her neck after falling from a washtub two Saturdays ago.

Her parents, Maxine Davis, 35, and Arthur Blackwood, told THE STAR that they are concerned that their only remainding daughter, who was in the washtub with her sibling, is slowly withdrawing into another world.

Counselling

"Look like she really need more counselling because sometime she might be playing with her friends and she jus' stop and look like she lost to the world," Maxine said. "I think she remembering about her sister."

Sushana, who wore a deadpan expression and played nonchalantly with a doll during THE STAR's visit, managed to relate how her sister died. She said they were busy washing their hands and feet in the tub together when her sister's playfulness got out of hand.

"She put a fly on me and push me, and me slap her and she push me back and she drop out (of the wash tub) back way," she said. "Me hear her cry and then she don't cry no more. "

She added that she fell out of the tub on top of her sister, just as the cement washtub fell away from the wall and came crashing down on her leg.

Her father indicated that contrary to popular belief, his daughter died instantly from the fall and not from the impact of the washtub. "The undertaker tell us that is not the washtub that kill her but is like the weight of her body that come down on her neck that kill her." The family awaits the post mortem report this week.

Their brother, Kishaine Stanford, 19, told THE STAR that he felt partly responsible for the death, as he had left them alone for no more than 10 minutes.

"I just give them rice and stew chicken to eat and go outside the house and walk up the lane," he said. "Not even 10 minutes before one of mi bredren come tell me sey Shania dead."

He said when he saw his sister lying motionless on the ground with blood trailing out of her nose and her face black and blued he could not believe it. "Mi did haffi go and drink two beer," he said.

Just over a week later, Maxine says she does not believe her daughter truly understands what has happened.

Inseparable

"One time she ask me if the angels bathing her in heaven," she said while propping up her head with one hand. "Then the next time she ask me if she going to see Shania at the nine-night service."

Her father, Arthur, indicated that the loss might be greater than seen on the surface, as the two were inseparable.

"You couldn't feed one and don't tell the other," he said, "Everywhere you see one, you see the other."

Maxine added that she had always cautioned them about playing in the tub. "I always see them go around there and tell them not to go in it because the wash tub was not yet cemented to the wall."

Maxine, who has not looked at the body of her five-year-old since the incident, will always remember her baby girl as a helpful and playful child.

"If she see me moving any furniture, she would sey, mommy let me help you," she said. "Every morning I going to work she would say to me, 'Mommy, you look pretty.' Every morning."

And while Shania's voice is forever silenced, her family will always remember her. "I liked everything about her," Kishaine told THE STAR. "I will miss her face the most."