Knight - File Photo
WHEN MITSY Knight, the mother of a three-year-old boy killed during gang violence last week, heard the strains of the hit song 'Missing You' at the wake held at her home earlier this week, she fainted.
"I never even realised that I had fainted, is when I wake up, dem tell me," Mrs. Knight said.
Mrs. Knight has not been sleeping well since gunmen blew away her son, Devonte Lawla, with an AK-47, while he was walking along White Wing Walk, Olympic Gardens, St. Andrew last week.
"I have headaches. Right now, mi head ah tear off, I can't sleep, I hardly eat, I haven't been to the doctor yet but my family is here with me," Mrs. Knight told The Gleaner.
"The church members talk to me but I don't get no counselling as such from anyone, but I am okay."
MARRIED
Mrs. Knight, 24, a Christian who got married on December 17, is finding out just how alone victims can be.
"When Devonte died, everybody started to come around and they promised to help, but now, one week later, I don't see nobody all now. I feel so alone, I haven't received any counselling, or any other support, all those promises, and they don't give me anything ... not like I want anything, but from those promises, no one has turned up," she said.
HELP
"Only the MP Andrew Holness has come forward and offered to help."
The funeral service for young Devonte will be held at Calvary Assembly, 19 Ball Plate Avenue in Olympic Gardens. The funeral has a $250,000 price tag which Mrs. Knight and her self-employed husband, Jermaine, are struggling to finance.
"If it wasn't for my family overseas ... I just don't know. I am recently married, and luckily, the funeral home, Brite-Lite, is understanding and has given me a package," she said.
According to Brite-Lite Funeral Services, the funeral package features a limousine for the family, a chariot for the casket, a wreath in the shape of a Bible and a designer casket complete with angels and a portrait of Devonte.
Questioned as to the necessity of a $250,000 funeral, Mrs. Knight said:
"I don't know why it cost so much maybe is the place. They say it is a bargain," she said.
"I want to bury him good. If I could find any money to bring him back, I would, so I do the next best thing send him off well. I won't see him again until 'judgment time'."
The tragedy of her son's death is compounded, according to Mrs Knight, who has two surviving sons, Tiven, 8, and Chad, 8 months old, by the fact that for the first time in four years she had communication with Devonte's father.
CALLING
"From I get pregnant, and he went to England, I haven't heard from him. He never called before, and now when Devonte is dead, he is calling to say he blame himself, but I can't even be angry with him, I just let bygones be bygones because I am a Christian," she said.
Kirk Lawla will not be coming home to attend the funeral this Sunday.
In the meantime, Mrs. Knight is comforted by her faith in God.
"I am not angry with God, my son is one of God's angels. It is just the Devil the Devil feels I am too strong in my God, he is trying to interrupt and he still cannot win," she said.
"I will not allow evil to come in my heart. The killers must repent and give their souls to God. Even if they repent, they will have to pay for what they did to my son."
