The Tribune

By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

ROSEMANIE Louis, the mother of the three-year-old boy who died after being found unresponsive in a car in front of his nursery last week, said while there is a “big hole” in her heart caused by her only son’s death, she forgives the teacher who accidentally “forgot” her child.

Ms Louis, who is Haitian, said her son, Kayden Guerrier, was a “happy boy” who told her he loved her every day and was polite to everyone he met. She said if she knew last Monday was the last time she would see her son alive, she would have “hugged him a little harder”.

Kayden was found unresponsive in a car in front of his daycare on February 13. According to initial reports from police, a daycare worker at his school off Coleman Lane found the child shortly after 2pm.

The child was rushed to the Princess Margaret Hospital where he died a short time later.

Officer-in-charge of the Central Detective Unit, Chief Superintendent Fernander, said the toddler was left in the car “by mistake” for hours after he was picked up by one of the teachers, who took him to school.

In an interview with The Tribune at her Kemp Road home yesterday afternoon, Ms Louis, who was visibly distraught, recalled her last moments with her son.

“Kayden woke up and said he wanted tea. I bathed him, gave him the tea and then the lady came for him,” she told The Tribune.

“He said, ‘Bye mommy I love you’. At 12.30 the police called me and said Kayden can’t breathe and he is in the hospital,” Ms Louis, who also has a daughter, said.

“I went to the hospital and the police came to me with the doctor and said Kayden couldn’t breathe. I asked them how because he was not sick when he went to school; then they said he died. I screamed and I asked why and the police told me that the teacher left Kayden inside the car. I don’t know why she left him, no one is saying anything to me.”

Ms Louis said she spoke with the teacher in question for the first time since the incident on Wednesday, but she still has no idea why her only son was left to die in the car alone. However, she said she forgives the teacher, who has promised to pay for the funeral and “any other expenses”, including flying the child’s father to New Providence from Haiti.

“She said she will do whatever needs to be done. (Whether) it was an accident or negligence, I will just let the police handle that part of it,” Ms Louis said.

“The teacher is sad and sick, I feel for her but I miss my son. I do not believe she meant to do it. Only her and God knows what happened, it is now a police matter. I forgive her. He was my only son now I only have one daughter. He was a good boy, he was not rude. He always told me he loved me. Anything he ate he would make me eat it too, he was always sharing and now he is gone and I won’t see him anymore. I miss him so much, oh Lord. There is a big hole in my heart.”

When contacted yesterday, Chief Supt Fernander said there is no update in the investigation and the police are waiting for the results of the autopsy.

Meanwhile, Ms Louis said the funeral will be held in “two to three weeks” because the family is trying to get Kayden’s father to Nassau.

A vigil in Kayden’s honour will be held tonight at 7pm on the park opposite Pilgrim Baptist Church on St James Road.