EILEEN PATRICIA LAYNE was a happy, friendly person who excelled at sewing.
She was also illiterate and a chronic schizophrenic and could not hold a job, said her daughter Deborah Layne-Hinds.
The troubled 74-year-old woman drowned Friday morning at Browne’s Beach, St Michael, during a family outing.
Layne’s grieving daughter spoke to the SUNDAY SUN yesterday at her home in Arlie Tenantry No. 1, Hinds Hill, St Michael, which she shared with her mother as well as her husband, children and grandchildren.
“My daughter had come in from [Britain]. On Friday, she was taking her son and nephew to the beach, so I decided she should take my mother as well since she did not get to go out with the family as much as I would like,” Layne-Hinds said.
She could not have known the outcome of this decision. Later, as she was attending the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, she received the terrible news.
“I was at the hospital when I received the call that mum drowned at the beach. I left and got there around 10:30 a.m. but it was very upsetting as [the funeral services team] did not come until around3 p.m,” she said.
Police reports stated Layne was spotted by a relative around 9:50 a.m. getting into difficulty and summoned a lifeguard to help. The lifeguard pulled Layne from the water and administered CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation] but to no avail. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Layne-Hinds said she had to wait on the hot beach under an umbrella for the funeral home to collect the body of her mother, all the while enduring questions from curious passersby. (CA)
