Son dies hours after father’s death

TREVOR LEVINE was preparing to attend the first night of his deceased father’s wake when he received another message that rendered him speechless  — his youngest brother Gerald had died at hospital, 12 hours after their father’s death. Trevor told Newsday yesterday, “It took a little while to register. Then I said ‘my brother dead?’ I couldn’t believe it because I had talked to him only a few hours before, to give him the news of our father’s death. It was just unreal.” Last Saturday, Trevor’s 85-year-old father, Cecil, who suffered with Alzheimer’s disease for two years, passed away at Buena Vista Nursing Home at around 11 am. As Cecil’s children were dealing with the death of their elderly father, their youngest brother, Gerald, 39, of St Margaret’s, Claxton Bay, took ill and also passed away 12 hours later.
 
Gerald’s siblings said they had accepted their father’s death, but was troubled by the fact Gerald was given a clean bill of health by his doctors only the day before his death. “I never entertained the thought that my brother would die. I just thought the shock of our father dying had affected him, but I thought he would get over it,” Trevor told Newsday. The family sought to console themselves that the double tragedy was the work of a higher being. “They were like two peas in a pod. I guess this was meant to be,” Gerald’s sister, Barbara said sadly. Trevor’s sister, Patricia McIntosh, who flew in from New York for the double funeral, said: “I had accepted my father’s death because he had lived a full life. He was old and ailing, so I consoled myself that maybe this way was better for him. But this is unbelievable. This is unheard of except when there is an accident or something,” she said, adding: “I don’t know how I am going to handle dealing with seeing the two bodies at the funeral.”
 
The family collected both their father’s and brother’s death certificates, which stated that the elder Levine died of complications relating to a stroke, while his son had suffered an aneurism. Trevor said last Saturday he was the first to receive the news of his father’s passing, and began contacting his nine other siblings, one of whom was Gerald. “I gave him the news, and he said to keep him informed about the funeral. Then I heard around 5 pm he took in sick and they took him to the Chaguanas Health Centre for treatment. He was transferred to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, but he died,” he said, still in disbelief. Trevor said almost one month ago, Gerald, began complaining of pains in his neck and head, and was warded for eight days at Medical Associates Clinic at St Joseph undergoing tests. Only last Friday, during a doctor’s visit, Gerald, a millwright at Atlantic LNG in Point Fortin, was told that he could resume work, but take up “light duties.” Yesterday, the family held a joint funeral service for Gerald and his father, Cecil, at the California Methodist Church. The bodies were then interred at the Claxton Bay Cemetery.