Teen dies on day of birthday party - Family seeks help to bury him
Ann Marie Steele of Waterloo in Manchester is seeking help to bury her son, 16-year-old Sadike Robinson.
Robinson, who suffered from leukemia, died on the day his family was hosting his birthday party.
"It was his birthday the Tuesday, (March 26,) and him tell us to keep the party on the Friday. Him get up in the morning, enuh, and him eat him breakfast and was watching TV, and den come sit on the verandah. But when him dere, him tell mi dat him neva feel suh well, and dat him need fi guh to the hospital to get some oxygen," she said.
Steele said that she rushed him to the Mandeville Regional Hospital, where he later died.
"Him deh pan di bed, and the doctor seh mi must gwaan go register him and come back. Same as how mi a go get out fi guh register him, him call mi and seh: 'Mommy, don't go, mi a go dead'. By the time mi went back in there, him dead," she lamented.
Steele said Robinson was her first son and the third of six children. He was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 10.
She said this placed a financial strain on her family, and her son was denied what she considers a normal childhood.
"Him go Mile Gully High School for one term. But because him suh sickly, wi had to take him outta school. Most of him time spend in the hospital. Sometime when him deh UWI hospital, I had to stay up there wid him, because I couldn't afford to keep on coming back down," she said.
She said she has sought help from her councillor to bury him, but this has not been forthcoming.
"I'm not getting the help I need. I check with the councillor for up here, and I don't hear back. His package is for $260,000. I have him at Nash Funeral Home in Mile Gully, and mi cya afford it. I have a little bit, but not what to cover it," she said.
And with the funeral planned for less than two weeks from now , Steele said she's worried.
"Mi stress, because nothing nah gwaan. Every time mi lie down and mi think seh the days dem a run out, mi just feel worse," she said
Persons willing to assist Steele, can contact her at; 876-559-3404 or 876-403-1487.