May 23 was not a happy day for members of the Watt and Livingston families. It marked one year since Jean “Sister Jean” Watt, wife of Bunny Wailer, went missing.

The 70-year-old Watt, who suffers from dementia, has not been found despite an islandwide search by relatives and friends. On March 2, even as that hunt continued, Wailer died in Kingston at age 73.

His son, Asadenaki Livingston, is director, videographer and narrator of WAILnSOUL, a 32-minute feature that revisits the challenges his family has faced in the last year, coping with the disappearance of Sister Jean and his father’s illness.

The mini-documentary, a co-production by Tuff Gang Collective and Solomonic Productions, was uploaded on YouTube in March. It contains interviews with the Watt and Livingston families, as well as professor Denise Eldemire Shearer, a leading specialist on the effects of aging on the mind.

Livingston also interviewed Lloyd Dean, whose daughter Jasmine, has been missing since February last year. Jasmine, who is blind, is a first-year student at The University of the West Indies.

Though Sister Jean’s role as his father’s wife of 55 years influenced him to produce the documentary, Livingston said its content got broader over time.

“It was important to highlight the impact of mental illness, as I believe that as Jamaicans we sometimes can be insensitive and just call people madman or madwoman. Although I was motivated to do this project by hoping to keep the awareness of Sister Jean’s disappearance, my wife and producer for this project made me realise that it’s not just my family being affected by dementia, and that we should make the project relatable to a wider audience,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “She then recommended and secured the interview from Dr Eldemire Shearer as an expert in dealing with age and wellness.”

Eldemire Shearer addresses the early and progressive stages of dementia which includes short-term memory loss, repetitiveness and a propensity to wander. She also stressed the importance of a caring family.

Lloyd Dean is still distraught at the disappearance of his daughter, who lived at her family’s home in Bull Bay, St Andrew. In a show of empathy, producers of WAILnSOUL reached out to him.

“The documentary focuses on vulnerable women and while old age and mental illness was the vulnerability in Jean Watt’s case, we thought to highlight Jasmine Dean’s situation, who was vulnerable due to visual impairment. Jasmine’s father Lloyd Dean and I were able to connect on a deeper level as we were both in grief but still optimistic, refusing to give up on finding our loved one,” Livingston explained.

Bunny Livingston and Jean Watt first met as teenagers while living in Trench Town during the 1960s. Though they never officially married or had children, she was the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter’s confidante who also designed many of his costumes. Livingston acknowledges the strain his father’s philandering had had on their relationship, but said there was no doubting his love for her, and her love for his 13 children.

“My father was very aware of Sister Jean missing, as it had a detrimental effect on him. At the time my father and I were on a strict workout schedule as he was in recovery of his first stroke in 2018. After Sister Jean went missing, he stopped working out and was stressing as he knew her before he knew any of us. She is his wife of 55 years, so of course he must have felt like a part of him was missing,” Livingston noted.

Like his father, Asadenaki Livingston is a singer and songwriter. He has a degree in Communications/Media Studies from Clayton State University in Georgia and has worked in that field with the RJR Communications Group.