JUST IMAGINE

 

AN UNNECESSARY LOSS AND SAD LESSON . . . .

A family broken apart by the death of their son.

Heart broken. Lost. A young dad lost for good. Not to be seen or heard from again. 
Tears of sadness. Tears of guilt. Tears that will not wash away the sadness and the heart break.
And now the painful reality that they have to face now and forevermore.
That the cause of his unnecessary pain and loss is the very same couple who delivered him into this world, his father and mother.
The very people who he ran into their arms calling mama and papa. Both are in mourning and the family is asking the question why, what happened?
To find out why? We have to go back to the events of December 15.
The family resides in Awagasi in what is a settlement block in Papua New Guinea's 🇵🇬 second largest city,  Lae.
People from all walks of life, attracted by the bright city life and the hopes of a better life,squeezed into land owned by the Kamkumung and Butibam people,  the original landowners of Lae.
But life here is tough as it is in any settlement across the Pacific.
High unemployment breeds a lot of social issues among these drugs, alcohol, disease, and criminal activities.
It was into this humbling scenario that family arrived.
Father is from Finschhafen east down the coast from Lae. Mother is from Wau Bulolo up in the mountains, the scene of a 1930s gold rush.
December 15 dawned as just another day. Ten days before Christmas. Here and there, the tinsel or whatever resembled a plastic tree was erected.
The mood for a happy Christmas was building up, only to be shattered by the events that followed. 
The son had been drinking with friends when he returned home to his parents.
His mother had a small enterprise,  known as a table market, selling all manner of fruit including the famous areca nut, buai infront of her humble home.
The son stood in front of the table. Business was not good that day and he was blocking the rubble of clients that passed by each day.
The takings from the table markets put food on the table each day in the settlements and son was being a nuisance and hindering mama.
She called for backup from her hubby who arrived to remove his son.
But a fight broke up, sadly between father and son. And the young man was allegedly murdered by his own father.
Police have now arrested the parents and charged mama and papa with murder. 
A family has been broken up viciously.
Why, one might ask? Why does this unnecessary deaths occur in settlements in Papua New Guinea?