The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

LOVAN Miller-Christie, the Andros mother who lost all three of her sons in a car crash less than two years ago, said she wept for the five teenagers killed in last month’s Shirley Street crash, saying the tragedy tore open the grief she still carries.

Mrs Miller-Christie said the deaths of Bertrica Brown, 18, Diamond Stubbs, 17, Stania Webb, 19, Evalena Johnson, 19, and Keno Gordon Jr, 19, reminded her of the pain that has marked her life since September 2, 2024, when her sons — Philip McCarron Christie, 24, Philip D’Caprio Christie, 23, and D’Angelo Christie, 20 — died together in a traffic accident in New Providence.

“I cried for those children,” she said yesterday. “They just graduated, they were intelligent (and) one was getting ready to go to college. I was just looking at their story and I say ‘oh my God.”

“I just wept, I really felt the pain,” she said.

The Shirley Street crash happened on June 28, when eight people were travelling in one vehicle. Bianca Mathurin and Shawn Thurston, 21, remain in hospital recovering from their injuries.

Mrs Miller-Christie said people began messaging her after the crash, telling her they knew the tragedy must have stirred painful memories.

Her sons had left their quiet life in Andros and moved to New Providence in pursuit of bigger dreams before they were killed. The Tribune interviewed Mrs Miller-Christie in June 2025, the first time she spoke publicly since the crash that claimed all three of her children and broke hearts across the country.

Now, she said, she feels deeply for the parents forced to shoulder a similar kind of loss.

Although coping with her sons’ deaths remains difficult, Mrs Miller-Christie said she continues to lean on her faith.

“I’m still managing,” she said.

She said she hopes one day to reach out to the grieving families, but believes they need time before they can absorb the comfort others are trying to offer.

“I know when I lost my sons, people were reaching out to me, but I wasn't hearing them, you know,” she said. “They were talking to me, but I was in another space. I think that when people go through loss, you could send them your condolences and tell them, but you have to give time to reconcile with that loss and that pain.”

Mrs Miller-Christie said The Bahamas needs an organisation where people grieving sudden losses can find moral support, counselling, and guidance from others who have endured similar tragedies.

“We could come together share and explain our pain,” she said. “And share what it is that we use to help us manage our grief, pain, and loss, and to come out of bed with sanity.”