Ronald and Lorrel Malcolm have been almost inseparable for the last 10 years. So while family and friends were saddened to learn that a motor vehicle accident had claimed their lives on Easter Monday, they were, in a way, glad that they had been together in the end.

“God knows why he didn’t take one and leave the other and I know they are together in heaven,” said Georgette Malcolm, Ronald’s 33 year-old daughter.

She was speaking with the Observer, yesterday, outside the Cooreville Gardens home that her father and stepmother had shared since their marriage in December 1994.

A dazed Georgette stood with her nine-year-old son, Javanne Williams, his 15 year-old brother, Sonjay Denton, was inside his grandfather’s house. The deaths have been hard on him.

“He was his grandfather’s favourite, since he was his first grandchild,” explained Georgette.

Ronald, a taxi driver, celebrated his 65th birthday less than two months ago. His wife was 43.

When the accident occurred on Spanish Town Road, they were giving Ronald’s 35 year-old nephew, Horace McKenzie, and his wife a ride to their Seaview Gardens home. The plan was to drop off those in the car, then spend the day in the country with the grandchildren, who would be picked up later.

They never made it to Seaview Gardens.

Ronald’s Nissan Sunny motor car collided with a Toyota Hiace minibus on Spanish Town Road at around 7:00 pm. Passengers included Pat Williams, Anthony McIntosh and Adrian Campbell.

“Lorrel’s neck broke and she died on the spot and my dad and the others were carried to the Kingston Public Hospital, where my father died,” explained Georgette.

Accident survivors had told her, she said, that the driver of the minibus fled because his vehicle was not insured.

But for now, that is unimportant as she grieves.

“I never hoped to be burying him right now,” Georgette said. “But if he had survived Lorrel, he would never live down the guilt.”

Strangely, that thought gives her some measure of comfort.

“They did everything together,” she said. “He taught her how to drive and still, if he was going to church he would carry her and pick her up back (if she stayed late).”

The couple worshipped together; Ronald was a deacon and Lorrel a member of the choir at the New Testament Church of Christ on Eastwood Park Road in Kingston.

Yesterday church members mourned the couple’s sudden death.

Though both never had children together, Ronald leaves three – two boys in addition to Georgette – while Lorrel leaves a boy and a girl.