Mom sensed son’s death

IAN Harripersad met an untimely  death when the trunk of a 40-foot immortelle tree broke, crashing on top of him on Monday. But his 72-year-old mother, Dayiah, seemed to have sensed her son’s death for the last two weeks.

According to the deceased’s sister, June Rangoo, their mother seemed focused on Harripersad and kept talking about him. Speaking from the gallery of the Harripersad’s Fyzabad home where the deceased’s siblings had gathered yesterday, Ragoo told Newsday: “She (their mother) was only asking for him. Asking when he coming to see her, and why he not coming.”

According to police reports, around 1.45 pm, Harripersad was cutting grass with a brush-cutter at Trin Khan Oil Company Limited, Quinam Beach Road, Siparia, when, without warning, the trunk of an immortelle tree broke, sending the top half of the tree crashing down on Harripersad and killing him instantly. Hours before the freak accident, Harripersad’s mother’s mood turned sombre. “Mammy had a feeling since in the morning that something was wrong. She was very sad. Then in the afternoon I went upstairs and saw her crying. I asked her why she was crying and she did not answer.” June said. 

By the time news of Harripersad’s death reached the family, his elderly mother seemed to have fallen into a trance. “She is not really talking or anything. Although she is watching you, it look like she not really seeing you,” June explained. The deceased’s younger brother, Neil Rangoo, told Newsday his brother’s co-workers believed the loud noise of the brush cutter, prevented Harripersad from hearing the tree trunk as it cracked and fell. “They said that during the crop time, that tree was on fire for two weeks straight, before it burnt out on its own. Nobody paid attention to it until Monday,” Neil Rangoo said. Company officials, when contacted, refused to comment on Harripersad’s death.