‘My heart hurts’ - Mother of boy who drowned in Trelawny says she can’t even look at his photos

Having buried her mother last October, and now losing her 16-year-old son, Johnathan Eccleston, who drowned in Trelawny last Thursday, Magrea Seivwright is having a hard time coping.

Eccleston, a Grade 11 student of William Knibb Memorial High School, drowned at a river in Perth Town where he had gone fishing with a group of friends.

"Every time I look at his picture, I feel so torn. It makes me sad," Seivwright, 48, told THE STAR. "I'm trying so hard to escape everything that's happening. I don't even want to use my phone because everybody has his picture on WhatsApp."

The second of her four children, Eccleston would have celebrated his 17th birthday on March 30. Seivwrght told THE STAR that he had never done anything special for his birthday.

"This time I was gonna take him out to eat," she said. "Now that I'm not able to do it, my heart hurts because I was looking forward to it."

Tight bond

Seivwright, who recalled having a tight bond with her son, said that the day before his passing, he greeted her with a kiss and hug.

"I can remember when I came home from work, as I stepped out of the taxi, him run to me and gave me a tight hug and say, 'Mommy, you know say me love you, me love you, enuh, Mommy'," she reminisced.

Seivwright said that she remembered warning her son about being obedient because he had left home for his school's sports day on Tuesday, but instead went to the river.

"I turn to him and said 'Johnathan, can you swim?' Don't go back to the river, it's not safe," she said.

Two days later, Eccleston again went to the river. His mother did not know he was heading there.

She told THE STAR that a few hours before she got the news of his death, her gut feeling told her something might have happened to him.

"When my daughter called me and tell me say him gone to the river, she didn't even say anything else to me, I just know," Seivwright said. "Me just have a trembling feeling in my belly and my hands felt cold. When me go outside my workplace and saw my daughter I scream out and I fell to the ground."

The distraught mother said Eccleston was passionate about football. His school's acting principal, Audrey Steele, said he was never reffered to her for disciplinary matters so she knew of him to be a quiet child.

"I saw him around the school and when I enquired about him, I found out that he was humble and mannerly; those are the adjectives I would use to describe him," she said

Seivwright said that she could depend on him to take care of his younger brothers.

"He would also do the chores around the house when I asked him; now I don't know; I can't explain the pain I'm feeling right now. It is hard," she said.