{"id":3245,"date":"2019-11-27T23:02:30","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T23:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3245"},"modified":"2019-11-27T23:08:52","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T23:08:52","slug":"he-was-a-jovial-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3245","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He was a jovial soul\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>&nbsp;Only child hit by car, dies<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>Michael Nattoo\/Barrington Flemming story<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Eleven-year-old Damaine Simpson Jr., abandoned by his mother at three days old, and the only child for his visually impaired father, was heading home from school last Thursday to the woman who raised him \u2013 grandmother, Veronica Spence, when, in a playful moment with some school friends, he was hit by a car. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Damaine died, plunging those closest to him in mourning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His grandmother, however, felt the pain of his passing more, as just last year, in the same month \u2013 November, she lost Damaine\u2019s two cousins, sisters Tiana and Tiara Thompson \u2013 her granddaughters, in a motor vehicle related tragedy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the case of Damaine, according to the Sandy Bay Police, about 3:30 p.m. on the day in question, Damaine, a student of the Sandy Bay Primary and Junior High School, was crossing the roadway when he was hit a motor vehicle that was travelling towards Lucea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Damaine reportedly sustained injuries, and was rushed to the Noel Holmes Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The driver of the motor vehicle, according to the police, was warned for prosecution, and had his motor vehicle seized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an interview with the <strong>Western Mirror<\/strong>, Damaine Simpson Snr., father of the deceased, was in disbelief about his son\u2019s tragic passing. \u201cI don\u2019t know how I\u2019m feeling,\u201d the visually impaired Simpson shared. He was my only child. Right now, I am just flabbergasted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Amidst his grief, however, Simpson, who is visually impaired and is a trained teacher and counselor, recalled the promise he saw in his son, and remembered his dreams and his jovial demeanor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI would take him to the clinic when required\u2026 It is most painful to lose him. He had ambitions of becoming a soldier. I gave him a trip overseas to Orlando, Florida, in July because he had been doing well at school,\u201d Simpson Snr. Shared with the Western Mirror. He also explained that though he was an active presence in Damaine\u2019s life, it was truly his mother, Veronica Spence, who raised his son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt was my mother who raised him. He was such a respectful, jovial and wonderful son\u2026&nbsp; and now he is gone,\u201d the grieving Simpson Snr disclosed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>HEARTBROKEN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spence, who is both hypertensive and diabetic, was really shaken by the news of Damaine\u2019s death, which was reflected by a dangerous spike in her after learning of Damaine\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy God, he was my little company. He was so loving and nice. He would come and hug me and say \u2018Grandma, how you look so sad?\u2019 and kiss me and cheer me up.&nbsp; I don\u2019t know how to manage this; it too painful.&nbsp; From three days-old until he was 11 I raised him. What am I to do now?\u201d she lamented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Principal of the Sandy Bay Primary and Junior High School, Eugenie Simpson, confirmed that Damaine was indeed a jovial student who was academically driven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe was a very jovial student. He was very hardworking, academically sound, and was active as all boys are,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Miss Simpson related that the counseling cohort of the Ministry of Education visited the school following Damaine\u2019s passing, where Damaine\u2019s father, grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins, came to the school, along with the students and teachers, and were counseled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Sandy Bay Police, who also bemoaned Damaine\u2019s death, issued an appeal to the students to be careful when crossing the road and not play along the road, and to keep along the sidewalk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;Only child hit by car, dies Michael Nattoo\/Barrington Flemming story Eleven-year-old Damaine Simpson Jr., abandoned by his mother at three days old, and the only child for his visually impaired father, was heading home from school last Thursday to the woman who raised him \u2013 grandmother, Veronica Spence, when, in a playful moment with some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1656,1655,59,1658,1657],"class_list":["post-3245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-car-accident","tag-damaine-simpson","tag-ministry-of-education","tag-only-child","tag-sandy-bay-primary-and-junior-high-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3245"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3248,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3245\/revisions\/3248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}