WHY 43-year-old Rosemarie Taylor was called outside her house under the pretence that her adult son had been arrested, then shot dead by gunmen, is still a mystery to her family members and neighbours.

More than the mystery, however, is the shock that such a gruesome act could have been committed in their deep rural Ginger Hall community in Bath, St Thomas, moreso to a woman and one as well-loved as Taylor. Taylor’s 18-year-old son Ronald Edmon recounted the last moments he spent with his mother, on Monday, April 15. It was like any other night, he said, as he, his mother and his 12-year-old sister turned in for bed. His older brother, Paul, was at his grandmother’s house, a short distance away, where he has been living for some time.

His mother soon fell asleep, but he stayed up for a while longer.

At approximately 9:40, Edmon said he heard a male voice calling his mother, but he decided not to answer as he did not want his mother to be disturbed.

“But the person out there still calling and calling and dem walk ’round di house and keep calling until she hear and answer,” he told the Jamaica Observer North East.

Then, Edmon said, the voice, which he did not recognise, shouted to his mother: “Police have Paul ah jail.”

At the news that the eldest of her three children was being held by police, Edmon said his mother walked into his room and informed him that “someone say police tek up Paul”.

He said she hurriedly got dressed, planning to go to her mother’s house to tell her the news. But she didn’t make it, as the moment she opened the door, she was greeted by a barrage of bullets, three of which hit her. The men escaped via the narrow track leading to the community.

“Mi just a gwaan live on because maybe is just fi har time, Edmon said on Tuesday, staring into space.

Efforts to get a comment from the Morant Bay police, who is dealing with the matter, proved futile as the investigating officer said he was not in a position to comment on each occassion that the Observer North East spoke with him. His phone rang without answer on other occassions and he did not respond to messages left for him up to press time.

Taylor’s mother Claire Matherson tried hard to hold back the tears as she remembered her only child as a “quiet and nice person” who took the best possible care of her children.

Taylor, who supervised the cutting and burning of cane on the Duckenfield Sugar Estate in Potosi, where she worked for the last 16 years, was also said to be well-loved by those with whom she worked, as well as residents of the community where she lived all her life.

“She was loved by everyone, her co-workers and even the farm manager,” Matherson said.

She recalled the last conversation she had with her daughter, earlier that fateful day.

“She didn’t go to work that Monday. She went and buy Cash Pot and when she coming back she call to me and ask wha number play and me tell har five. She say ‘look how me go buy 32’ and mi joke and say dem add three and two together,” Matherson recalled.

The older son, who was safely inside his grandmother’s house at the time of the incident, is said to be coping poorly.

“Him cry every day because it was his name dem use to get his mother outside and so him taking it very rough,” Matherson explained, adding that he opted not to stick around to talk with the Observer North East, as it was just too much for him.

As for the 12-year-old daughter, Matherson said she is trying to remain strong for her, but she is worried about how the event will affect all three of her grandchildren, since Taylor played the roles of both mother and father to them.

“She live for her children. One time mi suggest that she leave and go work in a small island, but she said no because she not leaving har children,” Matherson explained.

Taylor’s aunt Valerie Matherson said the gunmen have taken away more than a niece, a daughter and a mother.

“Dem tek weh the bread winner. She was more than a man to Claire (her mother) and more than a father to her children,” she said, adding that she did everything to help her family.

The community, meanwhile, is living in fear.

“Right now the community fearful and if a clappers ever burst yah now all ah we woulda scatter,” one resident said.

He was referring to the loud, clapping sound made by fire crackers, which while illegal in the island, are popular, especially at Christmas.