Family buries remarkable six-year-old Crystal John Sunday

OVERWHELMED BY THE ANGUISH OF LOSING A SIX-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER
AND SISTER TO CANCER OF THE EYES, three grieving family members have sought
refuge in work and study to help distract from the excruciating pain from the sudden loss.
Mr. Ivan John buries his six-year-old daughter Crystal, tomorrow Sunday.
When he eventually leaves the Christianburg Cemetery, just her tender frame will be interred in
its greedy grave.
He will leave with the collection of memorable moments they shared in her brief but
unforgettable sojourn with him, her mom La Shawn and sisters Nichola Price, 16 and Keiasha
Arthur, 12.
La Shawn recalled that while to many her daughter was a Special Needs child, the family viewed
her as normal and worked diligently to give her the kind of life they know she deserved though
that was often a steep mountain to climb.
Crystal though, often took some of the sting out of the grueling experience with her bubbly
personality.
Her sudden death jolted them. Mr. John has been burying himself ever since with work in the
construction sector, and sisters Nichola and Keiasha, submerging themselves with schoolwork.
“The children they are still in disbelief as they are hurting and to help in easing the hurt and pain
that they feel over her death, they have been filling their time with school work,” La Shawn told
www.aroundtheregions.com.
Nichola is currently preparing to take the Regional Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate
(CSEC) examination offered by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) while Keiasha has
just commenced her secondary school sojourn at the Mc Kenzie High School.

“The truth is that none of us has come to the place of fully accepting her death. It’s hard. It’s
only the grace of God that has been keeping us going. We were all shocked to lose a child with
no prior warning. (It) certainly hurts a lot. What we are trying to do is to take one-day-at-a-time,”
she counselled.
LaShawn remembers Crystal as fiercely independent minded and did many things on her own.
This helped boost her self-confidence despite her eventual blindness.
“She knew where the refrigerator was so whenever she wanted something from the fridge she
knew where to find it and would go there and to other parts of the home by herself. Once you
taught her something a few times she knew it on her own after. Crystal had great plans,
unfortunately she didn’t make it through,” the grieving mother recalled.
Crystal suffered from Retinoblastoma, a malignant ocular tumour of the retinal cells of the eyes.
This form of cancer, usually occurs before the third year of a child’s life. In Crystal’s case, both
of her eyes had to be surgically removed in a bid to help save her life. She lost the first eye as a
baby and the other in February 2017. Both surgeries were done at the GPHC.
La Shawn is lauding the support her family received from individuals and institutions. She paid
homage to teachers Donnete Major, Rockel Johnson, Shellon Swayin and Sir Amin.
The sorrowing mother remembers the backings from the Special Needs Department of the
Ministry of Education; officials from the capital city, Georgetown; and others from
Demerara/Mahaica (Region Four); Mahaica/Berbice, (Region Five); East Berbice/Corentyne
(Region Six) and from Upper Demerara/Berbice (Region Ten).
She said that “Do the best that you can at all times and love them while you can, because they
need your love and attention,” is her appeal to parents.
Following a 30-minute viewing of her body at the family’s residence from 11 hours, a 90-minute
funeral service is scheduled at the Amelia’s Ward Seventh Day Adventist Church from midday
(12 hours).