The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THERE has been no moment in the past four days void of a tearful reminder of what the Labour Day tragedy took away, according to Bahamas Financial Services Union President Theresa Mortimer.

In an interview with The Tribune at her Horseshoe Drive office, Mrs Mortimer said the anguish and pain of last Friday's tragedy are rooted within her union.

Nursing injuries of her own, Mrs Mortimer yesterday worked her way through call after call. Family, colleagues, well-wishers were given what has become her tag-line in the wake of the tragedy - "We have to be strong, for them and for us."

The BFSU marched in Friday's parade under the theme: "Workers' United: An injury to one is an injury to all."

Referring to that theme yesterday, Mrs Mortimer called it "fitting".

All of the dead - Tabitha Shelley Haye, Katherine Augusta Fernander, Tami Patrice Gibson and Diane Elizabeth Gray-Ferguson - the injured and those traumatised, are either members of her union or connected to those she marched with last Friday. They were hurt when a truck ploughed through a crowd at the parade shortly after the driver got out of the vehicle, police said. About two dozen people were injured, police said. Yesterday, ACP Ken Strachan said the driver is not in police custody, but is still assisting with the investigation. He said the investigation could take several weeks to complete due its complexity.

"I told someone yesterday, talking about it is too hard," she said from her desk with her head tilted back. "The councillors told me I have to talk about it. They said I need to let it out."

Glancing over at a secretary seated in the office, she said: "I told them, I can walk through the pain; but I can't relive it."

"I basically see it as an accident ... It is an accident. And I have to accept it as an accident. We have to live with it as an accident."

According to Mrs Mortimer, the driver of the truck in last week's incident is the son of a BFSU officer.

Mrs Mortimer said her religious upbringing taught her that circumstances similar to what occurred Friday must be viewed through the prism of faith.

"I am not saying God planned for it to happen this way; but I think it was His will. This was His plan," she said.

"This hurts, I am not going to lie to you. This hurts more than I can say. Each of the lives we lost and the others impacted are of value to me and this union," she said.

Pointing to a picture next to her desk, Mrs Mortimer added: "This lady, Tami Gibson, she was actually the assistant secretary general of our union.

"She was going to do her first real case this week for the union," she said, pausing several times. "She retired from the bank in November, and between the union, she wanted to start school in September to chase a degree in theology. She said to me, 'Madam President, I am going to be an evangelist missionary.'

"So it was an accident that took so much from me, this union, this country and this world."

She added: "The young lady, Kathleen Fernander, she isn't even a part of the union; she's a supporter of the union. She is my close friend. She is like a sister to me.

"In the last five years she has been like a shadow; wherever I've been she was there. So, to lose her, I lost a part of my heart. Honestly."

She added: "Dianne Ferguson, she is a mother of one of the officers, but she was going with us in the next five days to a conference in Liverpool. You see, that's what this union is. We are a family; across the board, we all come together to form one big and interactive family. So, I have to accept this as an accident. If I don't accept that, this is going to break me and I can't let that happen.

"It is God's plan and I have to build on the memories I have with these women to make the best step moving forward. I have to be strong. I have to be strong for them, for the union, for the country. I don't think these women would have wanted us as a union to stop or slow down. They all would have encouraged us to push through and go on."

Mrs Mortimer said her legacy as BFSU leader is now eternally attached to the legacy of the women who died Friday.

Asked by The Tribune how the union intends to move forward, she said: "I don't know exactly, but we will, we have to.

"This isn't the first tragedy we've dealt with. In 2009, we lost two officers in the space of six months. I know that isn't anything like this but the same spirit we used then, we are calling on that now to get us through. We bounced back then. We have to do the same thing now.

"We depend on one another; we grieve together.

"Perhaps those two in 2009 prepared us for this. But we will come out on the other side," she said.

In a prepared statement she also shared yesterday, Mrs Mortimer thanked several public entities and agencies that assisted the BFSU during and after Friday's tragedy.

That statement read: "We are grateful and thankful to all the responders who sought to save lives, console us, and protect the dignity of those impacted. This includes: the nurses and doctors' unions, fellow unionists, PMH administrators and staff, staff of Doctors Hospital, the leaders of our fellow trade unions and their members, the management and staff of CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank, Senator Dion Foulkes, the minister of labour, and the Minister of Health Dr Duane Sands."