Siblings describe mother’s descent to illness, death

The 57-year-old businesswoman who became the fourth person to die from COVID-19 in Barbados, had been expressing personal fears against contracting the virus days before her first symptoms emerged.

Brenda Chadderton, the late owner of the Secrexx chain of stores had even been instructing her younger daughter, Krystal Cox, a Jet Blue flight attendant resident in New York, to ensure she took her vitamin C and to “stay away” from the virus.

But in an exclusive interview with Barbados TODAY via a three-way phone call this afternoon, 28-year-old Cox – speaking from New York – and her 37-year-old sibling here, Shamelle Chadderton, revealed that their mother even stopped travelling after her trip to Panama on February 8 this year.

“My mother was so scared of this virus. She wanted to travel in March and I said to her ‘mummy I don’t think you should . And she was like, ‘yeh, I don’t want to catch the coronavirus because I have diabetes,’” a somber Cox recounted.

“Honestly, how I felt, this was my mother’s greatest fear. And I also felt when she was sick, she was probably scared to think that she would have it,” Cox suggested.

Brenda Chadderton and her daughters Shemelle Chadderton (above) and Krystal Cox.

But in seeking to shed more light on her mother’s state of mind, Cox’s older sibling recalled that their mom had gone to a doctor during the early stages of her illness and was told she was only suffering from a sinus ailment and was prescribed medication.

“That was when she felt ill and she went to the doctor who basically told her it was her sinuses and her breathing was fine and everything. Then when I realized the medication was not making her any better, I called the COVID-19 hotline.

“After I called the hotline was when it was discovered she had the virus. The hotline people sent the ambulance for her and she was tested when she got to the hospital,” Chadderton remembered with pain in her voice.

A traumatized daughter recalled that the ambulance came to her mother’s home late on the night of March 29 and she was tested the following day.

She told Barbados TODAY she was not allowed to see her mom after the test, but was asked to go home and await the results which she remembered came back the same day.

Chadderton said she returned home and isolated herself fearing the worse about her mother.

According to her, those fears were realized and she felt her world turn upside down.

“When I heard the results, I was totally devastated because I knew my mother was diabetic…and when I left the hospital, the doctor had told me her breathing was quite shallow,” Chadderton stated.

Chadderton said a doctor called her on Thursday, April 9 and told her that death was imminent.

The younger sibling said: “They told us death was imminent from the time my mother got into that hospital. That was what used to make me extremely angry. Every single time we spoke to them they would tell us, she is stable, but critical…things could turn left…she is probably going to die; she is not going to come out. They were telling us that from day one,” Cox charged.

She said she was speechless, heartbroken and in shock when she first heard that her mother had passed.

“My sister and I were on the phone from the time they told her that death was imminent. We were on the telephone and she was telling me ‘Krystal I just feel that things are going to work out…’and we were on the phone for like 20 minutes. And in 20 minutes they called us back…she came back crying and that was it for me,” Cox recounted.

The two siblings had earlier reflected on how their mother may have contracted the virus even while she tried to be as careful as possible.

“Basically we have relatives who came in from New York,” the older sibling said as she started to share with Barbados TODAY what led up to her mother’s demise on the night of April 9.

The elder Chadderton sister pointed out that March 15 was the same day the flight on which the first COVID cases were identified arrived at Grantley Adams International Airport.

Chadderton, a local banker continued: “We have relatives who came in on that flight as well. And they were basically in direct contact with my mom. She didn’t pick them up from the airport, but she went to see them. She was in the house with them. She would have taken them around when they came in. So in our mind, that is the way.

“She didn’t go to work…she was not in the store or anything, so in our minds, that is the way she would have contracted the virus… via relatives,” an emotional Chadderton concluded.

She also said that both relatives, one male and the other female in their 60s, tested positive for the virus after her mother became ill.

“They would have been tested via the contact tracing. They tested positive. One has since recovered and the other is still testing positive. One is still in quarantine, while the other was released this week,” she added.

Chadderton also revealed that after her mother tested positive for COVID, she and her 14-year-old daughter went into quarantine for 14 days, but were given a clean bill of health at the end.

“When my mother tested positive, the next step was for me and my daughter. So we had the 14-day quarantine which finished Easter Sunday, two weeks after my mother took ill. I did not come out of quarantine because I still wanted to be tested just to be sure. I know there are people who would have been asymptomatic and still with the virus. So I just wanted my peace of mind,” she declared.

The two women described their mother as a gem, generous, loving, selfless and a true family person.

They said she was the bedrock of the home circle and insisted that they needed to know all their family.

In fact, the siblings remembered she had organised a family reunion recently because she wanted the immediate and extended family to come together.

“We will carry on our mother’s legacy of generosity,” they echoed.

Chadderton and Cox are presently on bereavement leave.

However, they intend to continue running the three stores owned by their mother with Cox planning to work part time as a flight attendant having already had her COVID test done in New York and is willing to do more on return to Barbados.

Cox said she is scheduled to be back on her job in September while Chadderton’s leave ends next week. But both have not ruled out extending that time if necessary.

Meanwhile, Brenda Chadderton’s body will be cremated next week and a memorial service will be held after the all clear is given in Barbados which is still under curfew.

She was the first woman and youngest person to succumb to the viral illness. The first three victims were all male, and ranged in age from 74 to 95.  Barbados’ death toll from COVID-19 stands at six.
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb