Bittersweet anniversary - Woman celebrates grandson’s birth, but mourns daughter’s passing

As she looks at her one-year-old grandson, Zyair 'Peppa' Thomas, lovingly, tears well up in Christine Campbell's eyes.

The infant's birthday was on Wednesday, December 10, but for Campbell, it was a bittersweet moment. It was also one-year anniversary of the death of her daughter Anna-Shay Campbell - Zyair's mom.

"The memories of my daughter is bigger than me just having my grandson because it is hard with her not being here. I am here with him alone and I know that my daughter would be here to help me with him when she comes from school. She would be here to help me with him but she is not here and my grandson will never know his mother," Campbell said.

Fourteen-year-old Anna-Shay died last year during childbirth at the Spanish Town Hospital. Consumed with grief, Campbell tries to cope and process Anna-Shay's death by pretending she is alive.

"I am going to wash her uniform and put it out on the verandah to dry. I have her picture out there so I put it on her (the picture) like she is going to school. I put her lunch money on the dresser same way and on holidays or suh, I will put down $2,000 so she can buy whatever she want. I took her picture to mineral bath and basically everywhere mi going. Mi ago laminate it so I can take her when I going swimming," she said.

As she struggled to place Anna-Shay's uniform on the life-size photograph, Campbell paused for a few seconds, her mind drifting off.

"It look like Shay get fat after Peppa born," she said. "I still cook and share her food and I let her eat her own spiritually, and after she finish I will either eat the rest or throw it away." Campbell insisted that her daughter is still with her.

"A lot of times we talk and when me extra stressed, she will tell mi not to worry. I hear her voice. It makes me feel better when I talk to her and I hug her up and kiss her same way," Campbell said.

Snapping back into reality by the sound of Zyair's voice, the tears rolled down her face again.

"Sometimes I think I look like how my heart feel...just crush. Sometimes I think that a counsellor may not be able to help me and I just have to go through my stuff alone," she said.

Adding to her stress is the fact that her daughter's death remains a mystery.

"I am not hearing anything that an investigation is going on and I can't move forward with a lot of stuff because I don't have a death certificate for Shay, because I was told I can't get it until the investigation is closed. I am not looking for money, I just want closure and justice for my daughter," she said.

"I know I am not the only parent who lose a child but I am in pain. People say mi must win bawling award. I just want someone to pay us little mind. I just want to know how my daughter died and if she passed during, before or after childbirth. Every day I sit and think about what happened and sometimes if it wasn't for my grandson, I would probably go to sleep and don't wake up," she added. Jacqueline Ellis, CEO of the Spanish Town Hospital, says an investigation is ongoing by a unit at the health ministry.

Struggling to make ends meet, Campbell depends mostly on TikTok live sessions and donations from good Samaritans to provide for Zyair.

"It's hard to feed him on a day-to-day basis and I have to give him porridge and little food and everything is expensive. I can't work because I don't have anyone to keep him. I don't want to go on the Internet and ask for things because this is not me. I usually work very hard," she said.

Campbell described Anna-Shay as being well-mannered and brilliant. She said she prayed for a daughter and thanked God for 14 wonderful years with Anna-Shay.

"She was an honour roll student and she make me proud and mi know she would be a big real estate dealer. She say she was gonna buy me a house. Mi alone going to have to take of my grandson and he is just one, and 2045 him ago just be 20, and mi ago be how much? Mi want him go college and how mi ago do that at 65?" said a tearful Campbell.