Amid pain, Temario Holder’s friends raise funeral funds

Struggling to erase gruesome images of the slaying they witnessed amid sleepless nights, Frederick Smith Secondary School students have announced an initiative to help give fallen classmate Temario Holder a final farewell.

Holder’s friends said they plan to assist the slain boy’s family in deferring funeral expenses.

Emerging from an extended counselling session with education officials at the Alexandra School on Friday, three students told reporters of the emotional difficulties in burying the child and decided to bring a container to school to collect donations from parents and teachers.

Holder’s friend Elvis Woodroffe spoke of a deep bond the two Fifth Formers had developed.

Elvis Woodroffe

He said: “I would hate to see his mother going through something like this and cannot afford the cost, so me and my little sister are trying to help his parents and family in whatever way we can.”

Woodroffe said the events of last Friday had thrown him into shock.

He added: “I wasn’t getting a good night’s sleep but then I started to accept the fact that he is gone now and nobody else can do anything about it.”

Fellow student Bianca Broomes, who is assisting with the fundraising drive, said she was looking forward to graduating with Holder and said students would always keep him in their memory.

She said: “We came up from first form as friends and it began to grow, so [his death] has had a big impact on me. I am not coping really well because it’s hard when you loss someone you were close with.”

While acknowledging that counselling had allowed her to “get out some of the pain”, Broomes said she was still not ready to return to classroom.

She said: “I honestly am not ready, because where he died, my class is right there and I have two classes in there so it won’t be easy on me to be in that situation.”

Brianna Bowen and Bianca Broomes

Another student, Brianna Bowen, said her late classmate brought life into the classroom and would be missed.

She revealed: “At first I couldn’t sleep by thinking about it and because of how close it was to me I felt bad.

“I just want to say I am sorry it had to happen like that and it couldn’t get solved.

“I think that if it was so serious, they could have solved it, someone could have talked it through and someone could have said to them that violence isn’t the answer.”
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb