I have sleepless nights - Mom struggling to deal with daughter's death

November 01, 2018
Lorna Brown
Jaydeen Grant
Jaydeen Grant
Lorna Brown
1
2
3
4

It’s hard not to shed a tear or two when Lorna Brown speaks about the death of her teenage daughter, Jaydeen Grant.

“I have sleepless nights. My life will never be the same, and this is one of the most painful experiences I have been through. I can't get back to my regular self. Even recently my boyfriend asked me what I crying about, and I told him it was for Jaydeen. This is tearing me up,” she said.

Grant’s decomposing body was found on February 16 in bushes in the Argyle Mountain community on the Westmoreland/Hanover border. She went missing on February 3. Autopsy results showed that the youngster died from a blow to the head. Earlier this year, a man was taken into police custody in relation to her death, but he was questioned and released. 

DID NOT LOOK AT THE BODY

Brown explained that when Grant initially went missing, she thought she would eventually return home. However, three days later, she said that she became extremely worried.

“I sat with my cousin and me say to her say me don’t know how mi would manage if mi hear say Jaydeen dead, and less than two minutes mi see a youth a come breathless say him find Jaydeen. Mi start tell myself say dem see her alive, but when mi look in di boy eyes me realise say that wasn’t the case,” she said.

Upon hearing the dreaded news, Brown fainted.

Grant was buried in August, almost six months after her death because of a delay with the autopsy. Her mother said she did not look at her body as she wishes to remember her daughter as the beautiful, fun-loving child she was.  

“Why would somebody want to lick mi baby in her head. She couldn’t hurt fly, and she and no one never inna any war. When people tell mi to try and get over it, I get upset because Jaydeen a mi belly pain. How mi fi get over mi belly pain?,” she said between sobs.

Brown said her tears must have reached into the spiritual world because a few days ago she saw the 17-year-old in dreams for the first time since her death, telling her that she was happy and she should stop crying.

The distraught mother told THE WEEKEND STAR that she had a special love for Grant because she experienced a lot of challenges during labour.

“She was born at a health centre, but the nurse told me she could not be born vaginally because she was too big. That little baby almost kill mi, but I was determined that mi and her would live. I was in labour for two days, and she eventually born vaginally and weighed little over 11 pounds," she said.

Brown's struggles didn't end there, as she said she faced many financial difficulties while raising her five children. 

“I cannot read too properly, so me chop people grung and wash people dutty clothes to mind mi pickney dem. Anywhere the likkle work deh, mi used to find it, and to see dem kill mi pickney and dash her dung like dog, it pain me heart,” she said, noting that her daughter wanted to become a teacher.

 

 

Other News Stories