Sascha Wil­son

The en­tire Point Fortin home­town of foot­baller Akeem Adams was plunged in­to sad­ness yes­ter­day, fol­low­ing his pass­ing at a Hun­gar­i­an hos­pi­tal.As word spread that the 22-year-old foot­baller had died af­ter suf­fer­ing a mas­sive stroke over the week­end, rel­a­tives were bom­bard­ed by lo­cal and for­eign calls from peo­ple ex­press­ing their con­do­lences.At his home at Salazar Trace, Mo­ra, Point Fortin, rel­a­tives said every­one was in a state of shock be­cause Adams was show­ing signs of im­prove­ment.

"We are in a state of shock be­cause he showed signs of progress late No­vem­ber and De­cem­ber," said his cousin Roland Dick.Adams lived with his moth­er, An­cil­la, and broth­er, Aki­ni, who have re­mained at his hos­pi­tal bed­side since he suf­fered a heart at­tack three months ago. Adams slipped in­to a co­ma on Sat­ur­day af­ter suf­fer­ing the mas­sive stroke and nev­er re­gained con­scious­ness.Dick said con­fir­ma­tion of his pass­ing came around 12.45 pm when Adams' moth­er called his un­cle, Ivan Dick.

Re­call­ing the last time rel­a­tives com­mu­ni­cat­ed with Adams, he said it was on Box­ing Day."We had a fam­i­ly gath­er­ing and we spoke to him, via Skype, for about an hour. He gave us the thumbs up and he start­ed to weep when he saw his grand­fa­ther As­in­to Dick," he said.He said As­in­to's 90th birth­day is in Feb­ru­ary and the fam­i­ly has been plan­ning a par­ty for him."He saw all the lit­tle kids and he wept. He gave us a wave, we not know­ing that was his fi­nal good­bye to us."

Dick said doc­tors even­tu­al­ly ad­vised that Adams not speak be­cause they did not want him to ex­ert him­self. He said each day prayer ser­vices and night vig­ils were held in the com­mu­ni­ty for Adams's re­cov­ery and for him to have a suc­cess­ful heart trans­plant on Feb­ru­ary 4.Asked if he knew how Adams's moth­er was cop­ing, Dick said she was a very strong woman."She was still try­ing to come to terms with her hus­band pass­ing a few years ago. This is even more shock­ing, he be­ing so young," he added.

Dick said arrange­ments were be­ing made to have his body flown to Trinidad."The Hun­gar­i­an of­fi­cials are work­ing with a time­frame of a week. They are mak­ing the arrange­ments," he said, adding they were al­so await­ing the au­top­sy re­sults.Dick, the sec­re­tary of the Sil­ver Harps Black Gold Club, said Adams was a role mod­el to the young peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty."The en­tire com­mu­ni­ty is in mourn­ing. It's a cold at­mos­phere through­out the com­mu­ni­ty. This fam­i­ly is the livewire in the com­mu­ni­ty."

Res­i­dents who spoke with T&T Guardian ex­pressed sad­ness over the pass­ing.To­by Agard said: "He is some­body who was re­al cool, down to earth. That re­al sad. It tough for his moth­er, who lost his fa­ther a lit­tle ear­li­er. I don't know how she will cope with this."An­oth­er res­i­dent, David Ghouralal, de­scribed Adams as his good friend."It shock­ing, we thought he was get­ting bet­ter," he said.

Point MP, may­or sad­dened

Point Fortin MP Paula Gopee-Scoon yes­ter­day said Akeem Adams had made an enor­mous con­tri­bu­tion to the lo­cal sports are­na.Ex­press­ing con­do­lences to his fam­i­ly, Gopee-Scoon said: "I am very sor­ry about the death of some­one who has con­tributed so much to the sport­ing world and life of this coun­try and he must be recog­nised for that."We can­not ques­tion God." She al­so ex­pressed her grat­i­tude to the Hun­gar­i­an med­ical team who at­tend­ed to Adams. She in­tends to vis­it Adams's fam­i­ly to­day, she said.

Point Fortin may­or Clyde Paul al­so ex­pressed con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly. He pledged the Point Fortin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion's sup­port and as­sis­tance to the fam­i­ly.

He has suf­fered enough–Jack

For­mer Fi­fa vice pres­i­dent Jack Warn­er de­scribed the pass­ing of Adams as un­for­tu­nate.Speak­ing with re­porters in La Brea, he said: "I think he has suf­fered enough. It is sad he is still a flower of his youth. A young foot­baller."He said the void left in the sports world, par­tic­u­lar­ly in foot­ball, be­cause of Adams pass­ing would not be eas­i­ly filled.On be­half of the In­de­pen­dent Lib­er­al Par­ty, Warn­er, the po­lit­i­cal leader, ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to Adams's im­me­di­ate fam­i­ly and friends.