Rhonda Brown will be remembered for her kind and giving nature by her community.
On Friday night Brown was struck while crossing the road at the popular Triple R square in Georgetown and succumbed to her injuries on Saturday morning.
ANN spoke with a visibly distraught Oda Williams, cousin of the deceased, who said that she is still in shock over Brown’s passing.
She told ANN that the night of the accident, that while she and Brown did not go to the popular party spot together, she did see her after she arrived.
Williams explained that Brown had on a red dress which she had seen her in before, however, that night, there was something different about the way she looked in it – pleasant and settled.
She said that she left to catch up with her friends and watched as Brown took off in the crowd and disappeared for a bit. She then watched her cross over the street and took her eye off her for a short minute and when she turned back around she witnessed the fatal accident.
“When me look round, all me see she fly up in the air in the red dress and then me see when she drop back on the car and bounce off ….,” Williams said through sobs.
After witnessing the accident, Williams said she was frozen in place and couldn’t move from the spot she was standing in. She said that she was in such shock and so grief stricken she couldn’t even muster the courage to go to the location where her cousin’s body lay as her friends encouraged her to go across the road and visit her in the hospital.
She said she was informed that night and the next day that Brown was conscious, talking and she had the confidence that she would recover.
So, when her mother delivered the news of her cousin’s passing, she was in disbelief and couldn’t believe it until she was told by other members of the community.
Williams said that since the accident she hasn’t been able to sleep.
“When me close me eye like me just ah see she in the air…for some reason,” she explained to ANN.
Williams, whose birthday is one day after Brown’s, said that they would sometimes spend their birthdays together and attend the annual Boxing Day fair at the Georgetown Secondary School together.
Williams said that Brown would be missed by the entire community where she is known as the ‘community mommy’.
“She like the community mommy, if you miss your children from your home they dey by Rhonda. Sometimes she didn’t even want to send them back home. If you go round dey say you going beat them, she ah rather fight you so you can’t beat them,” she said unable to hold back tears.
She said that Brown was kind and caring and would share her last with anyone who would ask.
Brown was a cleaner at the Georgetown Post Office and was a volunteer with the Red Cross.
Williams noted that Brown would often volunteer her services for any community project or activity even if there was no monetary gain to be had.
Brown is survived by five children, two of whom work on the Grenadine islands and two grandchildren.