Berbice crash: “My son was my joy, my happiness, my peace” – young mother

“I lost my son and my husband at the same time,” were the words of Delisa Chapman-Mangar, who tragically lost her husband and young son to an accident on Wednesday.

The car involved in the accident was, at the time, being driven by her husband, 32-year-old Joseph Mangar, with his four-year-old son, Jonathan Mangar, as his passenger. According to reports, the speeding car ended up in a canal, where it went underwater. The father-son duo was pulled from the wreckage motionless and was pronounced dead.

However, an autopsy performed on their bodies on Thursday gave the cause of death as drowning. The autopsies were performed by Government Pathologist Dr Vivakanand Brijmohan.

The grieving wife and mother on Thursday, she recalled the day started normal. “I left to go to work, and he carried the kids to school.”

Her husband picked up their son around midday and was heading to collect their six-year-old daughter when the accident happened. “I got a phone call from his mother saying that a white car met with an accident on the road, and it’s Joseph,” she recounted, still struggling to process the news. Still struggling to process the tragedy, the young mother said she initially believed she would see her husband again. “I keep telling myself I will see my husband later on,” she said emotionally.

The woman explained that neither she nor her daughter suffered serious injuries. She said her husband only had bruises to one of his feet. Chapman-Mangar said she was not inside the vehicle and therefore cannot say exactly what led to the crash.

“I can’t really say. I was not in the car. Only God knows what happened,” she stated. She related that relatives who examined the vehicle afterwards told her the car appeared to have been turning at the time of the crash.

Fighting back tears, the young mother described the pain of losing her son and husband simultaneously. “Losing my son and my husband is hard… I love them so much, and I miss my son. I miss both of them,” she said.

She described her son as the source of her happiness and peace. “My son was my joy, my happiness, my peace,” she cried.

The grieving mother said moving forward will be extremely difficult. “It will be very hard for me losing my son plus my husband at the same time”, she added. Investigations into the circumstances surrounding the accident are ongoing.