Marva Atkins gave her son the stamp of approval he needed on his outfit before he set out for a night of partying on the high seas on Saturday.
It was the last time she would see Carson, the second of her three children, alive.
The 40-year-old, of Foster Hall Land, St John, met his untimely death just shy of an hour after the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. cruise ended. He was on his way home as the front passenger seat in a car driven by 29-year-old Christopher Skeete of the same district.
That car was involved in a collision along Four Roads, St John, with another driven by Kera Deane, 34, of Todds Development, St George. Both vehicles were extensively damaged and the drivers were taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
Atkins, who appeared not to have come to grips with the tragedy as yet, was in her son’s house, which was next door to her own. She and some other family members were cleaning up the first floor where Carson, who was also known as “Yak”, operated his ital food business on Saturdays and from where he sold the produce he grew, when the DAILY NATION team visited.
“I can’t explain how I feel right now. That’s why I’m keeping busy and not sitting down. I suppose it would hit home to me later on, how I really feel. I feel bad,” she said.
She described her son as a no-nonsense, outgoing, friendly person, hard-working and a bit of a dresser. She added he also served as a mentor for several of the youngsters in the area and helped to keep them on the right path.
“Carson liked to work in the ground; he liked to work the land. He was also an outgoing party boy. They tell me Thursday he was at karaoke and they had a really good time with him,” Atkins said.
Her eldest son Sherwin Hope accompanied her to the scene around 3:30 a.m. yesterday but was not with the family at the time. She said her daughter Alison “was not doing too well” since receiving the terrible news and was lying down.
“He was by us last night [Saturday] before he went off, for us to see how he had looked. He liked to make sure he looked [good]. He was good, that’s why he took the picture;” she said with a smile.
Atkins was awoken by a call from a neighbour informing her Carson was in a bad accident. Not knowing the extent of his injuries, she made her way to the scene, but he had passed on by that time.
She was grateful for the care given by the members of the Royal Barbados Police Force, who tried their best to make sure he was “fixed up”, before she saw him.
Carson’s uncle, Joseph Hope, said people at the scene spoke of the influence the father of a teenaged boy had on the youths.
“After the accident, we heard people from the area saying how the fellas looked up to him. Saying how he tried to keep them on the straight and narrow way, so to speak. And how he mentored them and tried to instil in them not to cause any bad things to happen in the district. I practically raised him, so I would know about his upbringing. A decent child he was; courteous. We got along very well and I think he used to get along well with everybody around here,” he said.
Last Sunday, 44-year-old Paula Corbin, of Park Road, Bush Hall, St Michael, succumbed to injuries sustained in an accident on the ABC Highway, near Coverley, Christ Church. (YB)