Two brothers die after being hit from their bicycles less than three months apart

Erica Virtue, Senior Gleaner Writer

There is an old saying that parents should never have to bury their children, but don't tell that to Dornia Hill - a grief-stricken mother who has lost two sons, weeks apart, in bizarrely similar circumstances.

For Hill, death is a cruel and deadly monster that seems to be stalking her family.

In two months, death took two of her sons from her, including the baby of the family, 29-year-old Nerrado 'Nadi' Coleman, who shared her January 10 birthday.

First, death stole 40-year-old Byron 'Head' Wilson on Sunday, December 9, 2012, then on Saturday, February 23, it took Nadi.

Now, all she has of them are memories and her two grandchildren - Byron's six-year-old son, Brian, and Nerrado's seven-year-old son, Marshea.

"I don't know how I am going to manage. I don't think I can bear this one. I don't know how I am going to survive," Hill said last week, as she sat on her veranda with her back against the wall at her house in the Kingston 20 community of Maverley.

Another son, Curtis Wilson, sat nearby keeping a close watch on his mother, whom he described as "the strongest person I know".

"I am grieving too, but I have to be strong for her," he said.

TRAGIC DEATHS

Hill's voice cut Curtis' comments short as she belted out memories of her two sons.

Her voice broke several times during the interview and tears welled up in her eyes as she recounted the tragic circumstances of their deaths.

Byron was hit from his bicycle as he rode on Lyndhurst Road. Eyewitnesses claimed the motorist ignored the traffic lights at the Lyndhurst Road-Beechwood Avenue intersection before slamming into the bicycle.

Describing her son as a "piece of gold", Hill said Byron could make magic with his hands.

A mechanic, Byron learnt his trade just by loving it. His colleagues at the garage where he worked said if you gave him two pieces of iron, he could turn them into gold.

"The people from his workplace called him 'Head' because he was so good using his head. He used it to do good things. He could use his head for anything, and he chose to use it to do good," said the mother with the pain evident in her voice.

She smiled ruefully as she recalled how he loved "girls", especially if they were "brown", and said, "Him just work him money and give it to his girls dem".

FINAL MOMENTS WITH MOM

The grieving mother recalled Byron's last financial contribution to the Sunday dinner the day he died.

Somehow, during the cutting and seasoning process of the meat, she did not count him among those who would be eating dinner that day. And he didn't.

The next time Hill saw Byron, it was his lifeless body she was viewing at the Kingston Public Hospital.

With a heavy heart, the family got through the Yuletide season, and on January 6 they laid Byron to rest. Six weeks later, another blow would come.

Nadi was hit from his bicycle as he headed home to Waterhouse, allegedly by a drunk driver, who fled the scene, leaving a woman and child in the car.

"Every week, Nadi would carry snacks for his son Marshea and also his son's lunch money. Now his son is asking who is going to carry snacks for him," said Hill.

With her voice again breaking, Hill said Nadi was as brilliant as Byron, and could solve any problem once he looked at it.

A jack of all trades, Nadi fixed lights, computers, bathroom pipes, and anything in the house.

His girlfriend's fateful call that Saturday night to say that he was dead was a shock to the still-grieving family.

And the circumstances of his death is tearing away at their hearts.

SECOND DRIVER ALSO FLED

The reports indicate that Nadi was hit by the car on Bradford Avenue with his body landing inside a yard that is without electricity. It reportedly took the police about an hour and a half to locate the body. The driver of the motor car has not been seen since.

Now this Maverley family is struggling to cope and no words can adequately explain their grief.

To Curtis, his brother Nadi was like a son.

"Nadi was a genius. He could do anything. He was my little brother and I kinda took him under my wings, you know. We could talk about anything. And if he wasn't working and needed anything, he knew he could always come here. That's how we lived," said Curtis.

When he heard news of his brother's death, Curtis said he went to a section of the house to block out the wails of grief. He tried, but failed.

"I don't know if it make sense, but I tell my mother that although the death is hard, they are in a better place. We are the ones suffering and we are the ones bearing the pain," Curtis said as sat close to his mother.

What words cannot express, the body language did.

They are a family, wounded by two devastating losses, each one bringing forth the same question: why?