‘It’s not luck, it’s God!’ - Woman opens up about her brush with death

For Monique Nelson, every waking moment since last week has been consumed by crushing guilt and unbearable grief.

She narrowly escaped with her life, but the tragic death of 19-year-old Rahjaun Melbourne, who like her was seeking to save drowning pigs, haunts her daily.

"Mi caah sleep a night, mi literally a feel water a run pan mi body," said Nelson, tears streaming down her face.

Nelson recounted that both she and Melbourne were trying to assist a neighbour when disaster struck. Two pigs had broken loose from a communal pen and tumbled into the gully along Waltham Park Road in St Andrew.

Nelson, who insisted that they weren't her pigs, said she rushed to help, and Melbourne followed suit. But as the waters rapidly swelled from rainfall in the hills, they were both swept downstream. Melbourne tragically lost his life, while Nelson was saved by a Good Samaritan miles away in Seaview Gardens.

"Di hottest thing is mi just a help and nearly dead, and people a talk 'bout mi try ketch pig and mek the little boy dead. Anuh my pig! Mi just a help out and nearly dead too!" she told THE STAR yesterday.

Nelson explained that the day had started with clear skies and no warning of what was to come.

"We deh there a wait fi di hog dem come down, and by the time mi see dem, di water just start come down heavy. Di water neva high at first, so mi neva pree dat mi woulda wash weh," she recalled.

But then, disaster struck.

"When the water come down and lick me and the yute, the two a we did drop but wah sheg me up is a piece a zinc did a come down in a di water same time, while mi a use my hand back off the zinc the water end up start push me. The youth balance up himself and jump," Nelson said.

As the current slammed them, both Nelson and Melbourne violently washed away in the swift moving murky water.

"When mi a guh dung in a di gully mi a seh how Rahjaun a come down inna di gully behind me. But at the time mi neva even could a think, all mi a duh a bawl guh dung the gully. Mi a bawl fi help because the gully a wash mi weh and it come een like mi turn idiot. All mi a try fi hold on, the gully slippery suh the water a carry mi," Nelson added.

She also told THE STAR that she did not see when Melbourne passed her in the gully so she thought he was able to escape or had been saved. It wasn't until she was rescued that she learnt he was missing and later that he died.

Nelson escaped with cuts and bruises and was pulled from the gully by Majesty Gardens resident Anthony Sutherland after he was alerted by residents that she was in danger. Sutherland recalled seeing her being swept downstream, clinging to a floating pallet. Despite her fear and inability to swim, she lost hold of the pallet and was carried further down by the current. Standing at the gully's edge, Sutherland locked his legs around the side, reached out, and grabbed the woman by her neck just as she floated toward him.

With immense effort and the help of two others, he pulled her to safety, fearing she had died when she lost consciousness. A few pats to her face revived her, and she vomited up water, thanking him in her dazed state before passing out again. Nelson is grateful to the men that saved her because she never thought she would have survived.

"Mi literally give up. When the man hold mi, mi literally feel mi life a come out a mi because when him tell mi fi guh pan the pallet and mi guh pan the pallet, a di second person tell mi fi guh pan a pallet and the pallet flick wid mi. Suh mi a seh 'yow a it this,'" Nelson said, adding she is grateful to be alive.

"Dis a nuh luck, a just God gi mi a second chance. Him know the reason why him gi mi a second chance, a just God. Luck nuh inna dis," Nelson said.