DEESIDE, Trelawny – Housekeeper at the Falmouth Public General Hospital, Natasha Roach, did not show up for work as scheduled on Monday due to an ‘unexplained’ excruciating stomach pain.

Later that day, she got the devastating news that her second son, 16-year-old Khamal Hall, a grade 10 student at the William Knibb Memorial High School, was stabbed during an altercation with another student and had been taken to hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.

The grief-stricken mother told the Jamaica Observer West that while she was being transported to hospital to see her injured son, the pain ‘mysteriously’ vanished, adding that she is convinced that it was that instant when her son took his last gasp.

“Me wake up and the amount of pain me feel inna me belly, the amount of pain. Me turn to me boyfriend and told him how me feel, so me couldn’t go to work.

“And at that time a me son pain me a feel. And when me son dead, the pain gone. When me leave out of my house the pain stop, a that time him dead,” bemoaned the distressed mother, her face contorted with grief.

She contended that a tearful sister broke the news that Khamal was stabbed, but intentionally omitted, as not to shock her with the news, that he had died.

She was speaking during an emotionally charged atmosphere at her Deeside, Trelawny home on Tuesday during a visit by the Trelawny police, led by Superintendent Carlos Russell and representatives of both the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) and the Ministry of Justice’s Victim Services Division.

Sharing good memories of her 16-year-old son, Roach recounted how he would discuss events with her, especially when he returned home from school.

“He would come in the evenings and always have something to tell me. Sometimes if I am doing something he would say, ‘Just look up on me and hear what I am saying’. And I will just turn around and look and he would say, ‘Don’t take off your eyes, you know’. I have to look at him when he was talking,” the bereaved mother recounted.

Roach, who is asthmatic, reflected that during her asthma attacks, she would be assisted by both Khamal and his older brother David Swaby.

“Me have asthma and when it tek me they lay down with me and pray for me. When David gone a just me and him (Khamal). He said, ‘You naw go dead; the asthma naw go kill you, and me naw go no where left you,” she disclosed.

She reminisced how caring Khamal and his older brother were.

“I don’t have a girl child. They ironed my clothes, cooked my food, and washed. I have never talked to them and they frowned,” Roach mused.

In fact, during Tuesday’s visit to her home, her older son was busy in the kitchen preparing soup for her as she had not eaten since tragedy struck the previous day.

She stated that Khamal, who was the goalkeeper for his school’s daCosta Cup football team, and his older brother, Swaby, who represents the Mount Pleasant outfit in the nation’s premier football competition, the Jamaica Premier League, also as a goalkeeper, were very close siblings.

“Me have two of them and me never see them quarrel. Never see them vex with each other,” said Roach.

Una Jarrett, Khamal’s maternal grandmother, recalled that her grandson was a very polite and quiet individual.

“My grandson was so nice. I don’t have any problem with him. Him come up a yard and he would say ‘grandma good afternoon or good morning,’ and he sits down. Sometimes me have to look in the settee to see that Khamal is sitting there as he was so quiet. He goes over my sister’s yard… him quiet same way. He’s so quiet. You don’t hear Khamal with no big noise or anything,” said Jarrett.

“Last [Monday] night me don’t sleep, I don’t sleep last night because I walk up and down in the house because me can’t believe say Khamal really gone.”

The Observer West was informed that when the grief counselling team visited the accused student’s Clark’s Town home after leaving Deeside, his mother was a picture of grief.

She reportedly bemoaned that she felt like she had lost two sons — the accused and Khamal.

In fact, when she arrived at the hospital on Monday she fainted and had to seek medical attention after she learnt that Khamal had died.

The police have reportedly agreed to host a meeting with the two mothers at the Falmouth Police Station within days.

Meanwhile, the 16-year-old accused was on Tuesday charged in connection with Khamal’s death.

He is scheduled to appear in the Trelawny Children Court on Friday.

Khamal was reportedly fatally stabbed during an altercation at the school over a ‘guard’ ring.