10-y-o dies after falling from bicycle - Got baptised on Christmas Day with his dad

When Dwayne Edwards and his older son Joshua got baptised on Christmas Day, he recalled emerging from the water with a "joyous feeling", believing the spiritual cleansing was the mark of great things to come.

But merely eight days later, Edwards found himself drowning in sorrow after Joshua, 10, a grade-five student at the Seaward Primary School in Olympic Gardens, St Andrew, died following a freak accident. Joshua landed awkwardly on the handlebar of his friend's bicycle on Tuesday, and, at first, eyewitnesses were unbothered as the "energetic kid" quickly got back up. However, Joshua struggled to breathe before he made a final call for help. When his friends and relatives arrived, they reportedly observed a huge gash in his right side. It is believed that Joshua punctured a lung. He was frantically rushed to the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) but was soon pronounced dead.

On Thursday, when the news team visited Edwards at his home in Waterhouse, St Andrew, the 35-year-old bus conductor said that he was at work when his mother called him bearing the bad news.

"She say to me, 'Which part yuh deh? Yuh know say Joshua drop off a bicycle and him get unconscious'. So by time mi hear that mi rush go a Cross Roads and jump pon a taxi and go dung a Public (KPH)," recalled the grieving dad. "Mi never think it was so serious because me a say 'Him a go alright and thing'. Mi believe say him just had a broke hand or foot and me a go be able to see him when mi go there." But by the time he got there, it was already too late.

"Two doctors come out to mi to say my son was dead. Mi say, 'How yuh mean him gone?' And the other doctor say it look like him come in dead already. Mi couldn't bawl at the time until mi see him mother come in," Edwards shared in between tears. He said that his heart has been shattered into pieces, especially when he reflected on their relationship and Joshua's potential.

"It come in like nothing no happen, like him no dead or anything. But mi affi hold and beg God fi gimme strength for the family. I was working hard trying to set a foundation for him. But mi no get the chance fi mek life for him. Him always deh round me even though is not me who have him, a him mother him live with. He was a jovial boy and everybody in the community looked up to him," he said.

The distraught father said that Joshua's younger brother, Tyson, and his mother, were also struggling to cope with his death.

"She call me last night (Wednesday), she a irritate and a gwan some way, enuh, but mi just affi beg God fi help har. His younger brother (who is eight), no stop bawl. Him get mad and bawl till him go sleep," Edwards said.

Although heartbroken, Edwards said he was taking some consolation from their shared experience on Christmas Day and said that his son was now in a better place.

"A just God works yah man. See the day when mi a go church mi say 'Joshua come mi a bring yuh go a church'. Him say, 'Daddy mi nah go a no church, church too boring'. So mi kunk him pon him forehead and tell him to get ready. But mi say to him say mi nah lef him because mi feel like a miracle did a go gwan," Edwards said, before recalling how 'moved' they became at the sermon.

"It was so anointed. At one point di pastor did tell everybody fi stand up when him a preach and all when dem siddung, me and mi son stand up same way a listen him preach because it was so touching till he started to bawl, eye water start coming out of his eye. Di pastor made an altar call and wi go up deh. Di pastor asked me weh mi a do, if mi nah give up miself to the Lord and mi say 'Yea man mi ready'. So di pastor ask me wah gwan fi me son. Mi say him deh pon him own, enuh, a him affi go mek that decision. But he said yes, he wanted to be baptised," he said.

The born-again-Christian was able to muster the strength to take our news team where Joshua fell.

"To me, this come in like is a test, enuh, to see if mi a go hold it. But mi a go hold it man by the Grace of God. The devil a try fight against we. Di devil vex 'bout wah happen so him a try come at me hard. But me a pray and rebuke him in the name of Jesus," said Edwards.