Tears flow for two

The bus did not stop. And that prompted Alvina Ambrose to call and message her partner Jonah William to inquire of his whereabouts about 10:30 p.m.

But there was no response.

She felt he was at a party and someone would bring him home so she went to sleep, only to get a call around 1:30 a.m. from her sister, who gave her a number for one of William’s friends.

“I called him and he told me Jonah was in an accident and he didn’t think he was going to make it. I went to the scene and saw one of his friends in the ambulance and I asked for Jonah. He told me ‘Jonah gone’ . . . . I just kept screaming and screaming. I couldn’t believe it. I will miss his laugh; he loved to laugh. He was something else,” she said, as the tears flowed.

William died following a collision between the car in which he was travelling and a Transport Board bus at the St Stephen’s Hill/Black Rock Main Road junction in St Michael early yesterday morning.

Driver of the car, Colin Clarke, also died at the scene, while three other passengers survived with injuries which were treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

They were discharged.

Six of the 14 passengers in the bus were treated for injuries on the scene and later sought private medical attention.

Ambrose, speaking at her Baird’s Road, Lower Carlton, St James home, said she knew she had found someone special when William took care of her ailing mother without complaint.

Both originating from St Lucia, they met in Canada and continued their relationship in St Lucia and Barbados.

“He was in my life for about seven years now. We met in Canada and he came back with me to St Lucia when my mum got sick. There, he helped take care of her while I went to work. He cooked and cleaned and did everything for her without complaint, and he was the last person to see her alive. My family loved him even more for that – and so did I,” she said about the gardener and father of one.

She also said he was quiet and well-liked. He used to go to Town every weekend to hang out with the boys and usually caught the 9 p.m. St Alban’s bus back home.

In Chapman Street, St Michael, Clarke’s family was in a sombre mood as they reflected on their loss.

The former Wesley Hall and St Leonard’s Boys’ student worked at the Barbados Port Inc. and had a daughter who was home from studying overseas.

Sarah Bramble said her son played football and cricket for various teams and was a nice person. She added that she now had only one living child and could not bear the pain.

“He spoke to me that morning and the next thing I know, someone telling me my son dead,” she said.

Neither of Clarke’s parents could bring themselves to go to the scene so another family member identified the body.

His cousins Leroy and Vincent Clarke were in the car that night. Leroy was sitting next to Clarke in the front and said the air bag saved his life and that after he managed to get out, he realised something was wrong with his cousin and with William.

“When the paramedics came, I kept asking them how is my cousin. I thought they were just unconscious but the paramedics told me they didn’t make it – I couldn’t believe it. If not for the air bag, I would be deceased too,” he said.

Leroy said they were in the process of taking William home as he had missed the bus. (CA)