BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – IT was the first day of work - after spending quality time with her family over the weekend - when Suzan (not her real name) received a phone call any mother dreads receiving.
The person on the other end of the line told a story that caused her blood to run cold and anger to sink its claws deep within her.
“I received a call from my daughter’s father and he said we have a situation. My blood ran cold because of the tone of his voice and because my mind went wild, considering all the things that he could have possibly been speaking about. I didn’t know what to think. He told me that a man went into our house and troubled her, fondled her chest area, legs and vagina.”
Being careful not to give too many details about the incident, the distraught mother spoke exclusively with SKNVibes explaining that the man entered the home, went into one of the bedrooms and called the child into the same room.
He sat on the bed and after she arrived in the room, he asked the child, who was between the ages of five and 10 years, to sit next to him, which she did.
“That is when he began to fondle her. He stopped when our little son awoke and went into the room. Then he left and she was crying. What if the child didn’t enter the room when he did? My God help! It means that that man would have gone even further and he would have raped my child! Sick, sick, sick, worthless man! She told a relative what happened and when her father found out, that is when he called me.”
Of course – as Suzan explained – police officers became involved in the process and she had the opportunity to see the man accused of fondling her little girl. Fortunately for him, she said, he was out of her reach because had he not been, “God help him! I would have been behind bars even until today!”
She said the emotions she felt were many, including anger, resentment, frustration and pity, but none was greater than that which she felt having to look at her daughter’s actions following the regrettable incident.
“I cried because I felt so bad.When I watched my child wash her skin literally for hours, scrubbing like she was growing moss, I couldn’t help but cry. She couldn’t sleep in her bed for weeks...she was having nightmares and her grades fell. It was all a domino effect.”
The man – who was old enough to be his victim’s grandfather – was eventually punished with custodial sentencing but, according to Suzan, it was but a slap on the wrist.
“The man was eventually committed to prison. But the shocker was that he got far less than five years. It angers me to see that he went to prison to eat my tax money when he fondled my child. I know this might sound harsh, but prison is too good for these people. An example needs to be set. There needs to be some other way to deal with these situations.They go to jail for a year or five and when they come out of jail they do the same thing to someone else’s daughter, and it is not right.”
Suzan seems to be coping well with these sad happenings but, sometimes, all it takes is a glimpse at her daughter and memories begin flooding her mind. And if she meditates on these, she says anger and rage threatens to overtake her so much so that if by chance she sees the man who violated her offspring, she would seek to exact revenge.
The fact that he has already served his sentence and is now a free man, and the fact that the incident occurred more than five years ago – Suzan admits – do nothing to help her situation.
She has many ideas about how individuals of this nature should be punished. The most humane of her suggestions involves the culprit being hung by a particular part of his anatomy in a public place for a specified period of time.
It is said that time heals all wounds, but Suzan wonders if hers ever will.
