The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

Kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

TEARS streamed down the faces of relatives and loved ones last night as dozens gathered on Shirley Street to mourn four young women killed in Sunday’s crash, turning the site where a rental car slammed into a tree into a candlelit memorial of flowers, teddy bears, photographs and hymns.

The vigil was held for Diamond Stubbs, 17, Betrica Brown, 19, Stania Webb, 19, and Evalena Johnson, 19, whose deaths have shaken families and residents from Cat Island.

Mourners gathered around a fallen tree trunk, where candles flickered beside pictures of the young women. Loud weeping could be heard as hymns were sung and relatives struggled to hold themselves together.

Diamond’s grief-stricken father Damien was consoled by friends as he crouched at the spot where his ‘baby’ died. It was a similar scene of distress for Stanley Webb, father of Stania.

The four girls were among eight people in a Mazda sedan rental that collided with a tree on Shirley Street in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Apostle Anthony Smith of Prophetic Voice of Victory Tabernacle, who said Diamond was his cousin’s daughter and Betrica was a member of his church, led prayers at the vigil and embraced grieving relatives.

Mr Smith said he watched Diamond and Betrica grow from small children into young women. He said the two had been part of the church’s dance ministry for nearly a decade and described them as good church members who were “very smart, very respectable”.

“Diamond was like the mother, she took care of everyone in her age group, always happy, always responsible, never caught her out no way,” he said.

Mr Smith said Diamond arrived from Cat Island on Friday and texted him to ask whether he was coming to see her because she had brought him a box of flour cake. He told her he would collect it on Sunday.

“Sunday never came,” he said.

“This is hard for our family, our church, for the community But we believe the same God that kept us before will keep us through this,” he said. “I believe that they did what they were supposed to do and made the impact in The Bahamas that they were supposed to make for God to take them at such an early age, but in all things we give thanks and we pray that this be a lesson to not just people at large, but the younger people.”

Mr Smith praised Diamond’s upbringing, saying her mother’s investment in her future was reflected in her accomplishments. He said parents should encourage their children to pursue their goals.

He also urged young drivers to use wisdom on the road, saying vehicles can easily go out of control.

Anthony Thompson, 34, previously told The Tribune he raised Betrica from the age of nine after their mother died in 2015.

At the vigil, he said Betrica wanted to become a physical therapist because of her love for sports. He said she hoped to remain involved in athletics by helping injured athletes, particularly those who could not afford treatment.

Mr Thompson said his last conversation with Betrica was about mangoes and her student visa. He asked her to bring him mangoes from Cat Island and to make sure she collected her visa.

He urged young people to give their lives to Christ and remember that life is not guaranteed.

“Everybody believes they have tomorrow. God has done so much for me, and I was a teenager raising a teenager when our mom passed and he's given me the grace to do so, but in the blink of an eye, you're here today, gone tomorrow,” he said. “And if you don't know the goodness of God right now that you're here and you're steady and you have the right state of mind, and like that, all it takes is one negligence or one mistake and you're gone-so accept Jesus.”

Ciara Nabbie, Stania Webb’s sister-in-law, affectionately called her “Nia” and described her as a close family member whose presence brought warmth and energy to those around her.

She said Stania was “humble but sassy” and knew what she wanted.

“She had a quote that she said about excuses,” Ms Nabbie said. “Her main thing was: 'Excuses are tools of incompetence used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness, and those who use them seldom specialize in anything else'. That was one of her main things, especially when it came to encouraging persons.

Ms Nabbie said Stania once supported a friend who had lost his father by calling him every day with words of encouragement when he was seemingly ready to give up.

“She just started to come into herself, she was getting ready to go back to pledge, she was enjoying the band playing the saxophone at Langston University, she was majoring in music, minoring in law,” Ms Nabbie said.

She said she had encouraged Stania to study law so they could become law partners.

She said: “She was just a joy, loved seafood boil - my card used to get run every day with Uber Eats for sushi! I'm like Nia, I'm over here eating noodles and you're eating sushi.”

Ms Nabbie said Stania went to college at 16 after skipping two grades at Old Bight High School. She said the house was “bright” whenever Stania came around.

She recalled seeing Stania, Diamond and Betrica at her house on Saturday and telling Stania to call her if she needed a ride, no matter the hour.

“She came in the room and she said to me 'I'm leaving' and I said okay, and then I walked out there and I said no matter what time, no matter what call me, no matter what time. Y'all need me, call me because they know that no matter the hour, I'm coming to get them,” Ms Nabbie said. “She said when she come back, we can start ordering her stuff to go back to school, we were just preparing.”

Ms Nabbie said Stania often played the saxophone for her two-month-old nephew. The last song she played for him, she said, was Wind Beneath My Wings.