JANIS Sterling has spent the past 21 years searching for her daughter Keisha Williams. But while the search has borne no fruit, Sterling is not giving up.

Williams, who was 25 years old at the time she went missing, was said to have been living with epilepsy and bipolar disorder, which sometimes affected her memory and mood.

“She was epileptic and she kept on forgetting things and, you know, at times she tends to have anger problems,” Sterling told the Jamaica Observer.

The mother shared that she had previously tried multiple avenues, including the media and the work of private investigators, to locate her daughter, a past student of Marcus Garvey High School. However, she has so far not received any word of Williams’s whereabouts since the day she left her family’s New Ground, St Ann, home to visit her boyfriend just a few houses down the road.

What really alarmed the family was that Williams’s boyfriend, Trevor Campbell, also disappeared that day, Sterling told the Sunday Observer. The last they have heard of him is that he was killed some 10 years ago, so the family was never able to have their questions regarding what happened to Williams answered.

Despite the lack of information on the woman’s whereabouts, her family is still clutching onto hope that she is alive and well somewhere, Sterling said.

“It would mean everything to me [to find my daughter]. I love her dearly and have missed her so much. I want to see her again desperately so my mind can be at rest,” said 69-year-old Sterling who shared that she has experienced many nights of confusion and anxiety over the whereabouts of her daughter.

Williams’s cousin Tricia Benjamin, who lived at the St Ann home up until the disappearance, told the Sunday Observer that she has watched her aunt exhaust every avenue in a bid to bring her daughter back home.

“She left home and just never came back. She left to go visit her boyfriend, who lived further down the road. Both of them disappeared and the family has not heard of anything since. We have tried everything but we haven’t heard anything,” said Benjamin.

“We all struggle with the fact that we don’t know what eventually happened to her. We would like to know if she is alive or dead,” she added.

As she remembered Williams as a cheerful and happy person, Benjamin told the Sunday Observer that she would love to embrace her cousin, who would now be 46 years old. She also said her family is longing for the day that they receive a call from Williams.

Until then, Benjamin told the Sunday Observer that she would like to tell her cousin that she has missed her dearly.

“We love you and we would like to have you home. At least get in touch and let us know that you are alright,” Benjamin pleaded.

Family friend Venetia Byfield-Graham also told the Sunday Observer that she is praying for Williams’ return. Byfield-Graham believes reuniting the family will fill a void in the heart of the missing woman’s mother, as the impact of her disappearance has left visible scars over the years.

“It would fill the void in her heart she once told me [about]. I believe this, because losing a loved one is one of the hardest trials in life but it must be [doubly] hard to not know where your child is, whether they are okay or not,” reasoned Byfield-Graham.

“I think she would be overjoyed just to receive a phone call from her or a video call to really see that it is really her daughter, after all this time,” she added.

Noting that she, too, believes that Williams is still alive, Byfield-Graham told the Sunday Observer that she believes bringing this family together will heighten the faith of Christians and non-Christians.

“I have been a Christian for many years and I want to show others that my God is not dead. I want all who are not Christians to find hope and joy in prayer again, knowing that when they pray, God hears them. Somebody must have some information on the whereabouts of Keisha,” she said.