Last Saturday night Cheryl Archer experienced a series of “strange” events that left her with an uneasy feeling. Two days later she received the news that no mother wants to hear – her last child Ricardo Archer, 18, was dead.
He lived alone a stone’s throw away from his family home and was discovered by a friend in his residence at 3rd Avenue Bibby’s Lane, St Michael, Monday morning.
Archer, 57, spoke after her son’s body was removed from the scene, where a crowd of curious onlookers had gathered.
She kept her composure while law enforcement carried out their investigations but broke down on seeing her son’s body before it was taken away. Other family members also wept inconsolably after seeing the body.
Her eldest son, Kinsley Crichlow, 44, said the family was completely rocked by the news. “He just turn 18. He was my heart; I loved that little man,” he said.
The former Grantley Adams Memorial School student was described by his mother as a hard worker, who always tried to stand on his own. Ricardo, who learning to repair washing machines, was described as a “good boy” who had some “bad blood” with some people.
“I went to death door with him. When I was pregnant with him, I had to go surgery. I spent from January until the March 12 in the hospital with him; he was born on the 8th. I had a placenta blockage. So you know when a mother goes through something like that with a child, you know how she would feel about him,” she said through tears. In 2010 another son died, but that was a result of natural causes.
Archer wants the authorities to crack down on the violence in society.
“These things are going on for too long and too many young people are losing their lives and it needs to stop. The church, police, and Government everybody needs to come on board with these young people,” Archer added. (DB)
