Seunarine plans to finish mom’s home

She married a man who built a small wooden house for her on the edge of the Erin forest, then lost him when her son killed him.

For the first time in eight years, she hugged and kissed that son — Ramesh Seunarine — on Christmas Day. Then she promised him she would complete a nearby house she had started to build while he was in jail.

Ramesh was just 16 when he chopped his father Raymond Seunarine, 44, to death in a fit of rage. The teen had witnessed another incident in which Seunarine planassed his mother with a cutlass at their home. The family live at St Isabella Estate, Buenos Ayres, Erin.

For the crime, Ramesh spent eight years behind bars. But two Fridays ago he was released by Justice Prakash Moosai. By order of the judge, Ramesh, now 23, must remain with his mother.

Cindy, now 46, had taken Ramesh to the roti shop in Point Fortin where she works as a cook. His sister is married and the other brothers had gone to work.

The Seunarine family have no neighbours closeby. At Erin, tall trees cast shadows over the small wooden house on the edge of the forest. A muddy trace leads to the house.

On Christmas Day, Cindy spoke of life without a husband and a son incarcerated in jail. “Well, he use to come home drunk from work at the Corporation. Not everyday, but almost... he would start talking and talking and If I open meh mouth, he go hit me with the cutlass,” Cindy said.

Ramesh was just 16 and attending a junior secondary school when he challenged his father on August 15, 2002. He dealt him several chops but due to his age, Justice Herbert Volney who presided at the trial sentenced Ramesh to the State’s pleasure but not to be released before six years.

Ramesh remained in jail for eight years and during that time, mom Cindy would make the 90-mile journey from St Isabella Estate to Golden Grove Prison to visit Ramesh.

“I use to tell him he have to live with it, but he use to cry because he love his father too. He use to tell me he couldn’t bear to see his father beat me when he drunk. Then he would start to cry,” Cindy said.

She recalled the clanging of the prison gates as she walked out from Golden Grove, leaving son Ramesh behind.

“It eh easy for me when I had to leave him there. But I know he woulda come out after six years. I doh want to even pass there (Arouca) again,” said Cindy, wiping away a tear from her eyes.

With savings from her wages as a cook, she had begun to construct a small concrete house for the family in a small clearing in a front lot. When the walls went up, the project stalled because Ramesh’s two brothers were learning a trade and her wages as a cook could only buy food for the family.

The house is incomplete and walls are overgrown with bush and the flooring is cracked due to exposure to the elements.

Ramesh said he was overjoyed to wake up Christmas Day and the first thing he did was take a bath. He led his mother to the partially-constructed house and looked at the thick vines that have engulfed the walls and flooring.

“I made her a promise that I will work hard to finish it. I want my mother to live in a good house,” Ramesh said.

And, for the first time in eight years, he sat down with his brothers and sister and ate a lunch on Christmas Day comprising of roti, rice, chicken and pork.