Five-year-old Tamelia Thompson knew that her sisters, Tiara and Tiana, were dead long before her teachers confirmed her premonition.

“We saw her crouched in a corner, praying,” said Carolyn Brown, principal of the Providence Heights Early Childhood Institution in St James.

Tamelia confirmed to The Gleaner in a tear-jerking interview yesterday that nobody told her that her sisters had died.

“I just knew. I started feeling sad in the class, so I went into a corner and started praying because I love my sisters,” she shared between sobs.

Eight-year-old Tiara, 10-year-old Tiana, their best friend, eight-year-old Latisha Williams, and neighbor Kevin Hamilton all died from injuries sustained in one of the most horrific road accidents to rock the John Rollins Primary School and the community of Providence Heights in St James in years.

The three were students at the Rose Hall-based school, while Hamilton was the parent of a student there. Hamilton’s son, Kevin Hamilton Jr, and another student, who were injured in the accident, remain hospitalized at the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH).

Hamilton was transporting the children to school at approximately 8 a.m. on Tuesday when he lost control of his Toyota Corolla motor car along the Rose Hall Highway. It crashed in a ditch near a ball-ground, metres away from the John Rollins Primary School.

PERSONAL PRAYER WARRIOR

Known among her family members as their personal “prayer warrior”, Tamelia, who burst into tears during the interview, says that she is baptized and loves to pray.

Replaying the day of horror, her teachers said they tried to hide the tragic news of her sister from her by telling Tamelia that by the time she reached home, her siblings would be there. However, the youngster stated with confidence, “When I go home, I am not going to see them.”

By then, only one of her sisters had died – Tiara. Tiana, who was battling for her life at the CRH, died hours later.

According to Brown, Tamelia’s faith is strong, and she remained glued to her corner on Tuesday, praying for a very long time.

Her parents, who were to celebrate their third wedding anniversary yesterday but instead were mourning the loss of not just one, but two children, were not surprised by Tamelia’s revelation.

“The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh. We will always remember our daughters,” said Mica Anglin Thompson and her husband, Curtis.

Tiara 8, and Tiana 10

THEY GAVE THEIR LIVES TO GOD

Anglin Thompson described Tiana as a humble, beautiful, peaceful soul who was neat and pretty. Tiara, she said, was on the honour roll at school and had been a top student since infancy.

The mother of three admits to being a realist, but said that although she understood that death was inevitable, she never anticipated losing her kids at such young ages, “not to mention losing two of them at the same time”.

Thompson, who spent the entire day at the CRH with Tiana, for whom there was a glimmer of hope even with her debilitating injuries, said that she asked for a drink of water and begged him not to leave her to go home.

“Don’t go, Daddy. I love you,” was what she said.

But she did not make it.

The father of five said that his daughters were very loving. Tiara, he said, would find him anywhere he was, and she waited every evening on the veranda, looking out for his arrival home.

As painful as losing two of his children is, Curtis Thompson is happy that they were baptised even though their mother felt they were too young to take that route.

“I want people out there to listen to their children when they ask to be baptised,” said the father.

He said that both Tiara and Tiana asked to give their lives to God two years ago.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com