Twenty year-old Yohance Johnson’s father drowned when he was only five years old, so he didn’t have any solid memories of the man who fathered him. But his drowning didn’t stop the young boy from conquering the sea while growing up in Port Antonio, or from becoming a strong swimmer who loved the beach.

But the water wasn’t all that Yohance loved. He also loved people. As a teenage member of the Salvation Army, the Titchfield High School student would befriend, clothe and groom the Port Antonio street people and even went to Ohio, USA as a youth councillor. But on May 31, 2004 – the day that he was supposed to graduate from high school – family members were instead at his memorial service.

Yohance drowned on April 18 after saving two of his schoolmates from a similar fate.

Another student will have to take his place at the University of Texas in San Antonio, where he had been accepted. He was celebrating, the day after his final exams, at the beach where he drowned.

“I was at work when they told me what happened,” begins Yohance’s mother Colette Schloss from her home in Houston, Texas. “My son was only here (Houston) for one year and 11 months. They told me that he had drowned in the Matagorda Beach after saving two of his schoolmate’s lives and that they couldn’t find his body. He was a pleasant, loving and caring person and he always kept in touch with me.,” said Schloss, before tears overwhelmed her and ended the telephone interview.

Yohance’s heroic feat was reported in the April 19 issue of the Houston Chronicle. According to the paper, the 20 year-old and his friends – Ashley McCoy and Tammy Eastman, both 18 year-olds – waded into Houston’s Matagorda Beach at around 1:15 pm on April 18. The three Westside High School seniors soon discovered their mistake when waves up to four feet high overpowered and pulled them about 100 yards from shore. Johnson helped the two females swim closer to shore, but swam further in and convinced a 14 year-old boy on a boogie board to help him take the women to shore. He returned to the women with the boogie board and they hopped on while he pushed it and the 14 year-old pulled it. But a wave engulfed Yohance and he disappeared.

“This young man gave up his life to save other people,” Captain David Miles from the Houston Sheriff’s Department was quoted as saying in the Houston Chronicle article.

Johnson’s body was finally found on April 23 and he was buried in Texas on May 1.

“He was very brave and his death had a huge impact on the Jamaican community in Houston. They even gave his mother the burial lot plus two more places beside him free, but we still would want him back,” says his uncle Noel Pottinger.

And now, family and friends want Yohance recognised as a hero in his native land.

“I would be proud if the Jamaican government acknowledged my son for his bravery, on Heroes’ Day at the Governor General’s annual presentation,” says Schloss.

Pottinger, a 27-year civil servant, further fleshes out the reason Yohance’s heroics should be acknowledged by the Jamaican government.

“He made people see Jamaicans as unselfish people capable of giving their lives in a time when the image of the deportee dominates the Americans’ psyche when they see a Jamaican,” he explained.

Though Schloss lives overseas and is therefore unable to physically lobby for recognition by the Jamaican government, the Port Antonio Salvation Army – which insisted that a memorial service be held in the town for their hero despite his earlier overseas funeral – are in the process of sending a petition to Governor General Sir Howard Cooke.

“They are actually pushing for Yohance’s acknowledgment as a hero,” explains Pottinger, who lives in Spanish Town with his daughter and Yohance’s cousin Khadija Pottinger.

“All his life, he helped others and his community and he died saving others and so, members from the fire service and ourselves are putting together the petition requesting this recognition, because he deserves it,” says Major Selbourne Oates at the Port Antonio Salvation Army.

As he described Yohance as a selfless outgoing go-getter, Oates spoke of the young man’s annual fundraising efforts on behalf of the charity organsiation’s musical youth arm which, as a result, never miss the music festival on Mannings Hill Road.

“He always looked out for the entire group, never himself alone,” explains Oates.

But the members of the Salvation Army are not the only canvassers for Yohance’s recognition.

“The Jamaican Consulate here is lobbying the governor general for this public acknowledgment,” says Schloss.

And even as family members mourn, they take comfort from their memories of Yohance.

“He was a musical inspiration for me because he played drums and the tuba. And on my visits to the country I realised that he was selfless, because he was always at church and visiting street people,” says Khadija, Yohance’s 17-year-old cousin.

Ian Buchanan, Colette’s brother and Yohance’s uncle, never met his nephew until almost two years ago when the then 18 year-old migrated to America, but Buchanan was able to form an opinion of the young man during that time.

“He was a very positive go-getter who was involved in music and played soccer for his high school here and easily my favourite,” confesses Buchanan.

But perhaps Yohance’s own words, which he used to describe himself at high school and which were used at his funeral, give a better picture of him:

“I like to go fishing, swimming, climbing trees, hiking, mountain-biking, going to the clubs, hanging out with friends, going to church, playing drums, listening to music, singing, playing soccer and cricket and meeting new people, working on my computer and watching television.”