Junior Frederick, 22, died of cancer three weeks after reuniting with his long-lost sister. Clutching a photo of her in 2004, Frederick roamed the streets of Port-of-Spain, asking strangers whether they knew his step-sister, Kelly Ann John. Before October, 2004, they had not seen each other in more than 15 years. Frederick, Kelly Ann and their other sister, Alana, shared the same father, but they lived in different parts of T&T.
"He called me in 2004 and said he was my brother. I didn't know who I was looking for when we met," Kelly Ann said last Wednesday. She met with Frederick in Port-of-Spain and welcomed him into her home. During that conversation, he never told her he was dying from cancer. Instead, he told her about his life. "My brother changed my perspective. He went out of his way to bring us together." Kelly Ann said their father had forgotten about them and because of Frederick's calm and positive attitude, she had learnt to let go of her anger.
Three days after the conversation with her brother, she received the devastating news that Frederick was ill.
"I didn't know what to say to him. I couldn't come to terms with it. I just remember telling him to be strong, and that everything would be okay," she said. The siblings had agreed to meet the following week, but Frederick never arrived, and after two weeks of waiting, Kelly Ann became worried. It was Frederick's sister, Alana, 27, who told her that their brother had been hospitalised. He had told no one that he had been afflicted with cancer for three years. The sisters, who had not seen each other since they were children, decided to meet in San Fernando, where they walked across to the hospital. But by that time, Frederick could no longer remember Kelly Ann, whom he had recently met. "I remember I went home and told my mom that he wouldn't live much longer." By the following week, Frederick succumbed to the condition.
She was too distraught to attend the funeral, and to compound matters, her phone, with her sister's number in it, was stolen. "I was in total dismay. I had no idea how to contact her. I did not even know her last name," she said. It was just last October that Kelly Ann began to look for her sister. Her friends told her to search for her sister on the popular social networking site, Facebook, and after much thought, she typed in "Alana Frederick" and sent a message. Three weeks later, she received a message, which read: "If your father's name is Kenneth Frederick, I'm the person you're looking for." The siblings have been in contact since then, even spending Christmas together and spending the afternoon together on Frederick's birthday, last Tuesday. "If it wasn't for Junior, I would not have been reunited with my sister today."