Not even death could keep 13-year-old Rajae Sterling and 17-year-old Brandon Gordon apart.

The two cousins drowned at South Haven Beach in Yallahs, St Thomas on Easter Monday; the tragedy made worse by the fact that their relatives stood helplessly on the shore watching as the sea swept them away.

“We were on the beach, taking pictures, laughing and having fun when three of them went into the water,” Brandon’s godmother Kayon Smith told the Jamaica Observer.

Smith said the third boy, Jaheem, got out of the sea when he realised that his cousin, Rajae, was experiencing difficulties.

“Jaheem… told us that Rajae said to Brandon ‘mi cyaan feel mi foot, come fi mi’, and Brandon went for Rajae and that him nuh see back Brandon,” she said.

“When we jump up I don’t see Brandon. Mi see Rajae come up one time. When wi run and call somebody, it was a man who said that he couldn’t swim. Wi see the wave start carry him away. We started to cry because we couldn’t do anything,” Smith said.

Rajae was a first form student at Yallahs High School in the parish, while Brandon was in fifth form at St Thomas Technical High School and was scheduled to sit five Caribbean Secondary Examination Council subjects in a matter of weeks.

The two, the Observer learnt, were extremely close.

“You always see the two of dem; dem live good,” Rajae’s mother, Niketa Ferguson, told the

Observer. “If Brandon a wash out him pig pen, Rajae normally go over the fence and help him. If him [Brandon] a go fi him goat dem, him [Rajae] woulda ask mi if him can go. If him [Brandon] a go a shop, the two of dem would go; church, a di two a dem.”

Ferguson, who broke down several times when the Observer visited her home in Pearl Lane at Poor Man’s Corner, St Thomas on Wednesday, said she never thought that she would be the one to bury her son.

“Mi tink mi woulda dead lef him. Mi always a tell him say him fi tek in him education, cause mi nah go deh round fi mine him. Mi neva tink say him woulda gone lef mi,” Ferguson said as she wiped away tears.

Brandon’s father, Kerry Gordon, said he had a gut-wrenching feeling minutes before he received a phone call that his son had drowned.

Gordon said that he was the one who woke his son up and had asked him several times if he was going to the beach and that he (Brandon) told him no.

He added that if his son had said yes, he would have gone with him.

Meanwhile, Jamaica Boxing Board General Secretary Leroy Brown, while sending condolence to Brandon’s family, remembered the youngster as a promising boxer.

“He was from the St Thomas Boxing Club. They have been producing some very exciting young boxers. He did well in our junior championship that took place in November last year,” Brown said.

“We had our eyes on him for the future. His coach, Robert Napier, thought very, very highly of him. There was a little boxing demonstration, ‘Fight for Peace’, held recently at the [Jamaica] Pegasus Hotel in Kingston. He was there with a colleague. I can tell you I was totally shocked when I heard that this had happened. I spoke to him just the week before and as usual he was a very excited youngster. He was telling us his plans. As a matter of fact, he spoke with a member of the board who co-ordinates the amateurs for the Contender [series] and told them that he would like to fight in the Contender this year. It is really a terrific loss and quite shocking. We from the boxing board are really sorry,” Brown said.

Brandon, who made the national boxing team, was slated to showcase his talent in Guyana at a boxing tournament next month.

Head of the St Thomas Boxing Club Ludlow McWhinney said that Brandon was an impeccable boxer and that he would miss him terribly.

“He rose to stardom just two years now. He started when he was 14-plus. Only two years into the sport and he has topped his class in boxing in the country,” McWhinney said, adding that the teen was an avid boxer who needed little or no instructions in displaying his craft and that he was the first boxer to receive a personalised boxing glove from the gym, despite his age.

Brandon’s coach, Napier, who shared the same sentiment, remembered the youngster as a dedicated boxer who would normally pass on his knowledge to the younger boxers at the gym.