Florence Lewis is both haunted and motivated by her mother's dying wish to find her missing child.

Lewis' brother, Renford Simpson, mysteriously vanished in 1987 when he was just four years old. Now, 22 years later, in a bid to fulfil her mother's last wish, Lewis is determined to find him.

In a strange, yet moving twist, Lewis' mother died in 2006, one day after telling her daughter that she wanted her to write a letter to a popular radio show she believed could help in their search. Her death was sudden and unexpected and Lewis is convinced that the grief of losing her son was a contributing factor.

She told THE STAR, "She told me to write the letter the Sunday and the Monday she died. She was always searching for him. And because she was telling me about it, it's like it just rest on me. Mi feel obligated fi find him." At the time her brother vanished, Lewis was about 20 or 21.

Lewis grew up in the Staveet community in Rhoden Hall, Clarendon, with her mother Bernice Smith. Her father's name was Linton Simpson. She told THE STAR that in December 1987, her brother was spending some time with a grandaunt. She said the aunt left him for a few minutes to run an errand and when she returned, he had vanished.

Searching and investigating

"When she come back she neva see him, so she ask we if him come back to us and he didn't," Lewis said. She continued, "We went to the police and they did some searching and investigating, but he wasn't found." Though no trace of him has been seen since and no one has even heard anything of him, Lewis believes he is still alive. She said, "Wi nuh find no body or anyt'ing and we searched the rivers and everywhere."

Though it was also her dream to reconnect with her brother, she is even more motivated to find him now that she knows that it was something that meant a lot to her mother.

Her quest to find her brother is even harder because of the lack of information around his disappearance. Lewis told THE STAR that the only information she had to work with was what her aunt had told her, as her mother had little or no information. Nonetheless, she is steadfast in her goal and vows to never give up until she either finds her brother or learns more about his disappearance.

Lewis told THE STAR: "He just went there for a time. He was to come back. We just want our minds settled. It was my mother's dying wish."

She pleaded, "Long-lost brother, we have been looking for you for so long. We want to find you even though you won't get the chance to meet your mother, but if it's even to go and look at her tomb."

Anyone with any information that can help Lewis in her search should call her at 805-3758 or 573-1261.

The Crofts Hill police, who were investigating the matter back then, told THE STAR that no officer from those days still worked at the station and they had no records dating back that far.