The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AN Abaco family is devastated after 57-year-old Madjorie Mills, a cherished mother and grandmother, was killed in a car accident on her way home from work last week.

Police reported that Mills was travelling east on Forest Drive after 10pm last Thursday when her vehicle collided with another travelling in the opposite direction.

Both drivers sustained serious injuries, but Mills tragically died at the scene, leaving behind her husband, six children and 16 grandchildren.

Her daughter, Shirley Mills, said the accident occurred while Mills was on her way home from her second job at the family’s eatery at a local fish fry.

She said she usually rides home with her mother after closing, but on that day, her mother left without notice.

“This was so shocking to me that my mummy didn’t take me with her home, and we always ride home together,” she said.

Recalling their last encounter, the grieving daughter remembered how her mother had made two salads for a customer and asked her to drop them off.

After replying, “Okay,” she turned around to join her mother, only to find that her mother had already left, with the salads still on the counter.

“By the time we reach home, Mommy was not home,” Mills added.

The family waited for a while, hoping she would show up, but she never did.

Later, her daughter received a call from a cousin who had witnessed the accident unfold but didn’t want to break the news of her death.

“Instead of her telling us right away what was wrong, she just told us try to call our mommy and see if we could get her because they hear it’s been an accident,” she said, “and the whole time she’s talking to us like that, she’s right here on the scene looking at her godmother dead and she didn’t want to break the news to us like that.”

Shortly afterwards, the family received another phone call asking them to go to the police station. However, when they arrived, no one was there.

She said relatives visited the clinic after noticing the ambulance lights. What they saw upon arrival, though, devastated them.

“Soon as we turn the corners to come around to the back part where the emergency entrance is, I saw the stretcher with my mom in a body bag laying on it in front of the morgue’s door,” she said. “That was total hell.”

She described her mother as a rare gem, an upfront woman unafraid to share her thoughts.

Mills’ death brought the country’s traffic fatality count to 13 for the year, according to The Tribune’s records.