Mother of dead Olympian appeals to Govt:‘I want my child’s body in a box back in his country’

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Carisa Lee

Chrispina Edmund, the mother of Deon Lendore, is asking Government to bring her son’s body home.

Speaking with Guardian Media at her Tannis Lane, Arima, home on Thursday, Edmund said the expense should not be an issue.

“In my mindset he have done so much for the country and I think it’s only appropriate that we should get the assistance to bring my child’s body, “ she said.

As she sat in front of a portrait of her son wearing his 2012 Olympic t-shirt the mother said getting her son’s body back will bring the closure she needs.

“I made a human being of Deon Lendore, I did not make an urn and I did not make ashes…I want my child’s body in a box back in his country,” she explained.

Lendore, an Olympic and world championship medallist who was 29, died in a car accident in Texas on Monday, news Edmund said that was difficult to accept.

“The first day and so I was broken, I feel I could have die then I remember I have others behind and I say don’t question God he knows the reason why,” she said.

This faith along with a specific message from her son was the reason Edmund said she was able to speak about him without breaking down.

“My son came to me yesterday morning, three o’ clock, it wasn’t a dream and I lie and I clasp my hand in front of me laying on the bed and he just come how he used to talk to me and he said mummy be strong,” she explained.

Strength she found not just for herself but for the thousands of other inspired by her son’s legacy. Like his coach Pat Henry who she said was devastated by Lendore’s death.

“I started praying the decades of the rosary and I call on the Blessed Virgin and I said you suffered when your son died on Calvary cross for our sins and I know your pain now mother ease my pain and help me,” she said.

She asked for everyone to continue praying for her family as they too deal with their own grief.

“It was a serious tragedy round here the whole place get quiet it just get still the place get dead, it had some people didn’t want to believe it,” neighbour Junior Long said.

Long, as he stood under a billboard recognizing some of the sprinter’s accomplishments, said Lendore was important to the community and they were all very proud of him. He remembered him as a young boy running everywhere he went.

“We all was fans of him, it was real sad, real real sad,” he said.

A sentiment shared by Marcia Scott who said her daughter grew up with Lendore. Scott said his death came as a shock to everybody as she described him as a blessed child.

“I think God brought him for a reason because it was short but he came for a purpose,” she sadly said.

It was one that the principal of Queen’s Royal College– the school Lendore attended– David Simon said he fulfilled.

Simon told Guardian Media that many of the teachers who taught him are still in disbelieve as they remember him as someone who did well academically and on the track.

“That is perhaps where his passion was in the athletics,” he said.

Simon said because of the pandemic he has not been able to see him recently but before that he would always visit the school.

“Brother you left your legacy in your short life you’ve represented us well, sleep well and run with the King,” Simon said.