Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

A distraught Dorothy Johnson, sister of Paulette Johnson who perished in a motor vehicle crash on the Clarendon leg of Highway 2000 near the Vineyards Toll Plaza on Monday, speaks with The Gleaner news team during an interview yesterday. Five other persons perished in the accident. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

SPANISH TOWN, St. Catherine:

Dorothy Johnson wept openly as she did not know saying goodbye to her sister at her nephew's funeral would have been the last time she would see her alive. Now, she will have to prepare for the burial of her sister, who did not make it home.

"A caan believe, a caan believe that Paulette is really dead, after mi warn her nuh fi drive wid Jimmy, because mi neva like how him a move. She tell mi seh 'Later', but mi will neva see her again," Dorothy lamented, while being consoled by close friends and relatives, yesterday.

The Gleaner news team travelled to 28 Manchester Avenue in Independence City, Portmore, yesterday, where a pall of gloom hung over the yard of the relatives of Paulette Beverley Johnson, who was one of six persons who perished in a motor vehicle crash along the Clarendon leg of Highway 2000, Monday night.

A hard-working woman

Dorothy, Paulette's younger sister, described her as a hard-working woman who was facing a high level of stress. She said it was on Saturday that Paulette buried her 23-year-old son, who was fatally shot over a month ago.

"She reach so near but so far, as her life was taken away along the toll road, and it is really sad," Dorothy said. "She just bury her son and now we have to be preparing for her burial."

According to Sheka Rowe, Paulette's niece, she too, could have been a victim in the ill-fated motor car. She told The Gleaner that, as the car was about to leave Troy in Trelawny, she told the occupants she could not fit inside.

Also mourning was Paulette's firstborn, Julian Dawson, who described her mother as "a sister, a friend and one who cannot be replaced".

"I do not know how I am going to cope without her," Julian cried. "When she left Troy yesterday (Monday), she looked very strange. I could not believe that I would not be seeing her alive again."

Four relatives

The grief felt by the family has been multiplied as it will cost a great sum to bury their four relatives - Paulette, her brother, Robert Taylor, Kaycia Barrett, niece, and Paulette's son, Kemar Hyman, 18.

All four were of Portmore addresses, while two persons known only as 'Tash' and 'Willie', of Kitson Town addresses, were the other victims who perished.

Kemar had gone to the funeral of his elder sibling, Tanor Hyman, where he and Robert were pallbearers at the Troy Seventh-day Adventist Church in Trelawny on Sunday.

It is not known what will happen to their uncle, Jimmy Johnson - the driver who caused untold grief for the family - as he remains in hospital.

According to Senior Superintendent of Police Ealan Powell, charges are likely to be laid as there is evidence to suggest speeding was a factor in the accident.