MONTEGO BAY, St James — Twelve-year-old Jennel Walters loved her grandmother so much that the thought of not being able to visit her reduced her to tears last Friday. The young girl had made plans to spend Easter break with her father’s 68-year-old mother, Beryl Walters. The plan was to stay with her until the following Saturday.

“She called her grandmother on Wednesday when she went on break. So, Ms Beryl called me and said that Jennel called to say she is coming over on Friday,” Jennel’s mother, Christine Gilbert, told the Jamaica Observer during a visit to the family’s home on Wednesday morning.

She recalled when a decision was made not to let Jennel make the trip on Friday her daughter began to cry.

“I said to her, ‘Don’t cry. Every disappointment is for a reason because you asked daddy twice and something came up, so maybe it is best for you to go another time’,” said Gilbert.

She spoke in between sobs, a framed photo of her daughter clutched close to her body.

On Saturday heavy rains that lashed St James kept Jennel from visiting her grandmother. The young girl was determined not to make another day go by without seeing her grandma.

“She insisted because she said she had promised grandma that she would come. She didn’t go to church on Sunday because she woke up and got ready early. She really just wanted to see grandma,” Gilbert said, her voice cracking from grief.

“She and her grandmother were very close. They had a close relationship,” she added before going off in search of a photo album whose precious memories would prove her point.

Gilbert last spoke with her daughter on Tuesday while the child ran errands with her 25-year-old aunt Shannon Walters, her grandfather Berris Walters and her beloved grandma. She had called, as she usually did when away from the family, to keep her mother in the loop — and to relieve the boredom of waiting for her grandmother to complete a transaction at the bank.

“Yesterday, (Tuesday) she called me and she said, ‘Mommy… I’m in the bank with Grandma, Aunty Shannon and Grandpa’,” Gilbert recalled.

Jennel ended the call by saying, “That is what I called to say… I was just feeling bored.”

Her daughter, Gilbert said, was an A student who dreamed of becoming a doctor. She was a seventh grade student of the Montego Bay High School.

“She was always happy and she was very active in the church. She loved Korean movies and she would always tell me that she can speak their language,” said her mother before she was overcome with emotion. A few minutes before the interview, the distraught mother had been seen sitting on her child’s bed, staring forlornly out a window.

For Jennel’s father, Nicholas Walters, the grief is just as gut wrenching. The moment the family realised something was wrong is etched into his memory.

“I was here sitting and watching the television when I saw the flooding in Montego Bay… it was about some minutes to six in the evening,” he said.

He alerted Gilbert, who ran to turn on their radio.

The couple would soon learn that their family was in danger.

“As she turned on the radio she heard the news that a car had washed away… same time she got a call that it was our daughter,” Walters said as he wiped tears from his eyes.

“I tried to call their phones, but there were no answers, so mi decide seh mi a go out there. I didn’t see anybody there, so I drove to the Freeport Police Station,” said Walters. He was the one who verified that the body taken from the sea near Freeport Wharf was indeed his oldest child.

On Wednesday afternoon, neighbours gathered at the family’s home, speaking in hushed tones and ready to provide any help needed.

“We are giving him all the support he wants… if a even every day we affi come up here,” said Jermaine Woolery, Walters’ co-worker.

Young Jennel’s tragic death has been a heavy blow for him as well.

“Mi feel mash up. Mi did a drive go home last night and mi affi just stop and park,” the man said.

Woolery continued, “Know her long time from she about four years old. She was a good likkle girl… very bright.”

Member of Parliament Heroy Clarke (Jamaica Labour Party, St James Central), who is the political representative for the community where the family lives, visited Wednesday and offered his condolence.

“The father is a good friend of mine. We play cricket together and it is a very sad state… We are in full support of them in their time of grief. Whatever assistance I am able to do, I will definitely assist,” Clarke told the Observer.

The MP said the tragedy had touched the hearts of many residents living in Cornwall Courts as two young boys had drowned after being washed away by flood waters a few years ago.

Up to late Wednesday, there was no sign of Beryl Walters. Emergency teams from the fire brigade, the police and other agencies spent much of the day combing the banks of the Barnett River for some signs of Jennel’s beloved grandmother. The car in which they were travelling was pulled from the Barnett River earlier in the day. It had been pushed by storm waters into the murky churning waters of the river about 3:30 pm on Tuesday.

Berris Walters and his daughter Shannon were rescued. Little Jennel’s body was found on Tuesday night.