Weeping endured for two straight nights, but joy came to the Best family yesterday morning.
After searching desperately in bushy areas close to their home for 87-year-old James Best of Coggins Hill, St Andrew, for close to two days, the family breathed a collective sigh of relief when joint forces from the Barbados Regiment, which is the land component of the Barbados Defence Force, and the Royal Barbados Police Force discovered the missing husband and father just after 7 a.m.
Best’s daughter Carmen Best-Cox told the WEEKEND NATION the family were about to resume their own search when the discovery was made.
She said her father appeared no worse for wear after being out in the elements for close to 48 hours.
“I don’t feel he sleep; he had to be moving about. Because it was down in the ground next door to where we are,” she said.
She said he was dehydrated, but was able to talk to them in his usual manner.
He was taken to his personal doctor to be evaluated and was later sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. They were awaiting word on his condition, and whether he would be admitted at the time of the interview.
Best suffers from dementia and Alzheimer’s, and his ramblings about his whereabouts for two days brought laughter in place of the many tears that were shed when there was anxiety over his prolonged absence.
“We feel great. Everybody was asking [about him]. We wanted to find him alive and it happened,” Best-Cox said.
Her mother Enita, was equally relieved that her husband of 50 years had been found.
Yesterday’s search was led by Inspector Tony Hollingsworth and included about 87 people, 53 of whom were soldiers from the Special Operations Company of the Regiment, and police officers. The soldiers were under the command of Major Michael Jackman.
Private Dwayne Alleyne was the one who found Best in a “bunch of white bush” about 300 metres south-east of his home around 7:05 a.m.
“We were just happy we found him,” Alleyne stated.
He said Best’s first words were that he lost his backpack.
“He still had his humour, [and] he was in good condition. He was a bit weak, but he was good,” Alleyne added.
Hollinsgworth said the search started about 6:30 yesterday morning.
“We’re very happy that he was found alive, and I just want to thank all those who would have participated in the search,” Hollingsworth said.
Best was in high spirits as he sat down to meal of rice and green banana, which would have been his first real meal since he went missing on Tuesday.
He dismissed the suggestion that he was lost, saying he was “in town or somewhere”.
