A mother who struggled to cope with the disappearance of her son has died.
Relatives suspect grief got the better of Shafina Khan after her son, 28-year-old Jason Baptiste, went missing following a brutal pirate attack which claimed the lives of five fishermen from Orange Valley less than four months ago.
In an interview with Guardian Media Limited days after the vicious attack, Shafina described how she managed to survive numerous health scares in the past, including five heart attacks and two strokes, however the disappearance of her son had left a gaping hole in her heart, “I don’t know what to say again, I real miss my son, he was everything to me, it have nobody to say Ma, what you cooking today.”
Last Saturday while at the family’s Orange Valley home Shafina suffered a stroke and was rushed to the San Fernando General Hospital.
Her widower Cyril Baptiste said his wife of nearly 30 years was his everything, but the disappearance of their son crippled her, “when we get up we use to make coffee, I would sit with her and we would talk we had a really good relationship but after Trevor (Jason’s nickname) went missing things fell apart for her. She used to say she seeing him in the house, she used to really miss him, coping was difficult.”
On Wednesday Shafina succumbed to the stroke she suffered. Cyril said up until the end he was there for his wife, “I visited her every day, squeezed her hands, rubbed her head and spoke to her, but I knew she would not have made it out.”
But Baptiste is not the only grieving.
For the second time in less than four months, Nizam Khan has been plunged into agony.
After bidding farewell to his brother, he and his family now brace for their final goodbye to a woman who many say never recovered from a broken heart.
The bodies of teenager Justin Kissoon and Jason Baptiste were never found after the brutal pirate attack off Carli bay.
During the incident, seven fishermen were beaten and forced overboard.
Four people have since appeared in court for murder and others offences linked to the case.
