The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

It has been almost one month since Jill and Ron Gandza, Canadian citizens, lovers of all things Bahamian, huge supporters of the Bahamian Potcake and helpers of the Bahamas Humane Society, were walking back to their newly purchased unit at The Palm Bay Club from the town of George Town, Exuma, on a wonderful full moonlit night when they were mowed down by a hit and run motorist. They were left to die on the Queen’s highway whilst the driver of the car continued on.

How, how, how can anybody hit two pedestrians and not stop. What kind of person leaves two people to die on a lonely road at night?

Ron was left lying in the middle of the road; Jill was thrown into the bushes. Ron could have been run over a second time had the next car been speeding. Fortunately, there are good people in the world and the next car stopped and tried to help Ron, who had been hit with such force that he was already dead… Jill was found some ten feet in the bushes, still alive, but despite the best efforts of the doctor in George Town she passed away before she could be airlifted to Nassau.

Jill and Ron were 55 and 57 respectively. They leave behind an only son of 18. Their lives were brutally ended. Their son’s life altered forever.

Then started the “red tape run around”…The bodies were held in Exuma at Randy Curtis’s facility whilst “undergoing investigation” their unit was “sealed off” from friends wishing to secure their personal belongings. Their bodies, were in Nassau, weren’t in Nassau, were in Nassau. Every five minutes a different story.

The driver was speeding, the driver was drunk…Oops no sorry, he wasn’t drunk…was he speeding? I am still waiting to hear something concrete.

Surely the brutal force that impacted Ron and caused his head to break the windshield of the car that hit him denotes that the car was moving at quite a clip.

The driver was taken into custody. Again a million different stories, even from the different Police departments the family spoke to (I was present). One thing for sure the driver was out of custody in time to enjoy George Town Regatta party time, whilst Jill and Ron were lying dead on a slab in a morgue.

I have heard many eye-witness reports alleging that the driver had been drinking that night. If anybody had bothered to do a blood test to check his blood alcohol level this would be a mute point because we would know for sure even five hours later.

Did the driver have a valid drivers license? Was the car licensed? Was the car insured?

Finally the bodies came into Nassau (for sure this time). They were in the Government morgue at PMH. They needed to be identified before the autopsies…as if we didn’t know how they met their deaths and by whom! Anyway, have you ever been to the morgue? What a disgusting, filthy unwelcoming place that is. The waiting room is a hole in the wall with a totally dead Christmas tree propped up in one corner. It is dark and dirty, with a few chairs, not nearly enough with all the deaths in this country daily. Three doors with people in and out constantly, brushing past the bereaved families waiting to identify the bodies of their loved ones. Is there no compassion in this country? This is probably one of the worst days in a family’s life, having to identify “the remains” of a loved one. Can’t there be a decent clean room, quiet, without policemen and men/women in scrubs (are they about to perform the autopsy on your loved one?) stomping through a million times, doors opening and closing, countless good mornings to the same people over and over again…what about respect for grief?

Or is that dead too in the Bahamas, along with compassion? Once the family has answered two million questions they are finally led to a small window to perform the grizzly task of identifying their beloved relative.

Then on to the police station: another long wait. I must say they were extremely nice, but gave us lots of totally different information than what had been provided by the George Town authorities. However we were beginning to see that this was to be the trend.

Last stop was the funeral home for this day of delights. This went reasonably well until my friend, Jill and Ron’s relative, was asked for lunch money to speed up the autopsies so that the cremations could be done “expeditiously”…

Well clearly $200 lunch money did NOT do the trick. The bodies were not cremated until the family had long returned to Canada (they had jobs to go back to). Death certificates were not forthcoming for several days.

Finally the ashes head back to Canada, in a box. The man who was at the wheel of the car the night Ron and Jill were left to die on the Queen’s highway in Exuma walks free in the streets of George Town, he feels the sun on his back, the wind on his face and sees the rain fall. He will see his children and grandchildren grown up and play on the beaches of Exuma. Jill and Ron’s son will have to make a go of it alone with memories to guide him.

We, the friends of Jill and Ron Gandza sit mourning them, and remembering their kindness, generosity of spirit and love of the Bahamas. They wanted to dedicate their retirement years to assisting this country and the overwhelming stray dog problem we have with the canine population. They started the move to send Potcakes to Canada, a very successful rescue operation that is ongoing today.

I ask the Government of the Bahamas, when do they intend to see justice done? Why have no charges been laid? Do you really think that Ron and Jill’s friends will let this go?

KIM ARANHA

President,

Bahamas Humane Society