- WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
Deejay Yellowman (left) publicly comforts Pansey Henry and Troy Lee at the Shanika Anderson Benefit Concert, held at the Constant Spring Sports Complex, Constant Spring, on Saturday, May 6.

Andre Jebbinson, Staff Reporter

NOT MANY people know how to handle grief in rare cases when a parent loses more than one child at the same time.

This was the case for a mother and a father when they lost three of their children in a gruesome larceny attack.

On September 14, 2004, Pansey Henry had tucked her children into bed and had gone to bed herself. She was disturbed by sounds coming from outside her Port Henderson, Portmore, St. Catherine home. She saw two shadows, but thought they were her common-law husband, Troy Lee and someone else.

It turned out that it was two men who had come to carry out a threat made against Henry, earlier. They doused the home with a flammable liquid and torched it. The light from the flames made it clear that her nemeses was now making good on their threat.

"Mi seh Pixy, what yuh going to do with the fire inna mi yard ... By time mi call to Pixy him throw the fire on the house," Henry said.

Henry alerted her nine children to the danger. Six of them managed to escape the fire, but her twin boys, Tyrone and Tyreke Henry, five, and daughter, Moesha Lee, three, did not. "When mi try fi guh in and tek out di twins dem, di place engulf in a big fire," she said. She made her way to the back of the house where she was able to pull her then 15-year-old daughter out.

That night of woe, agony and horror inspired Henry to write a song dedicated to her children who perished in the fire. The song September 14, recalls the despair of a mother who said she "cannot forget her three loving babies".

"Betta if di yout dem did si me and kill and leave mi youts dem cause dem innocent," Henry said. She said she heard her children's heads explode as she watched the fire consume her home.

RECOVERING

After the incident, Lee said he encouraged his girlfriend to express her feelings on paper. He said they had an argument and he left her for two weeks. Upon returning, he found out Henry had composed September 14. "Mi seh to har dat since she is a turn-back Christian and was a lead singer in har church and since she know dem ting deh shi mus revive her self in it," Lee said.

Lee said his life would never be the same again and he is trying to deal with the situation. "Mi just feel likemi loose three-quarter of mi body. Fi months mi feel empty, nuh care how much food mi eat. It's like my eyes become my daughter eyes, because every move mi mek a she mi a si," he said.

Henry said she was at home depressed, crying and praying until she got a pen and started writing. She said she erased and added words until she came up with her first song.

"Suh mi write dah part yah an it nuh sound good mi tek it out and write something else. Mi continue singing and writing until me get it together," she said.

She recorded the song and is now now selling her single to raise money for a scorched daughter's operation.

Attacks on children are now at a high. In a recent interview with the The Sunday Gleaner, deejay Mavado condemned the murders of children. "Wi just need to find dem and hold on on dem so it can stop. Yuh have man who know who a duh it and dem naah tell you. Dem man deh need fi come forward," he said.

The concern has led to at least one major concert, the Shanika Anderson Benefit, which was held at the Constant Spring Football Field in May. It was held near to the first anniversary of the death of the seven-year-old, who was lured away from the Coronation market in downtown Kingston, raped and killed.

In February of this year, five children's and two adults' throats were slashed in St. Thomas.

These incidents puzzle Rondell 'Positive' Allen and have led him to compose a single discouraging attacks on children. At the time of the murders, he was an assistant manager at a service station close to where the family lived. Positive, who is now a teacher, said he was having a discussion with his students when they condemned what was taking place. "Dem seh, 'bway, too much killing.' So I asked then what they think Jamaica needs," Allen said.

LISTEN

He decided to write the song to give them some hope and his biggest wish is that the people will listen to the message of his song and be influenced to change their behaviour. He believes fellow artistes should use their influence to speak to the hearts of criminals and thinks it will be effective if Baby Cham would tell the alternative to Ghetto Story.

"Each song that I write have a solution. A lot of the people dem who involve inna crime right now might have their problems and situations from pickney coming up. Dem tink dem can find a solution through crime, but only God alone can give them that comfort," he said.

He said the main objective of his musical efforts was not to make money, but to reach the souls of Jamaicans.