The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

KHREASEL Glinton is grieving not only the loss of her soulmate, Rashad Storr, but the deaths of four fellow Da Pond members she had come to regard as family after last week’s North Andros plane crash.

For days, the 35-year-old musician has struggled to separate the waves of grief crashing over her.

“It is heavy on the mind, because sometimes I don’t even know who I might be crying for or who I might be screaming for,” she said. “When it comes on me, all I could do is cry.”

Storr and his bandmates boarded a Flamingo Air flight to North Andros on Friday to perform at a regatta. The journey was expected to last less than 20 minutes.

Instead, the aircraft crashed near San Andros Airport, killing all ten people on board.

Ms Glinton had shared a five-year relationship with Storr. Both were musicians, and their lives intertwined on and off the stage.

A Bahamian artist, Ms Glinton occasionally performed as a fill-in singer for Da Pond and gradually forged close relationships with the group’s members.

Now she is confronting the loss of the man she hoped to marry and the musicians she considered dear friends.

“I feel robbed. I feel like it just isn’t fair. I just feel like it wasn’t his time; it wasn’t their time,” she cried. “It just feels so unreal; Like I’m just waiting on one of them to just jump out and say psych.”

Ms Glinton said her relationship with Storr endured its share of difficulties, but their love repeatedly carried them through. The couple had hoped to marry and start a family.

“He was my best friend. I didn’t want to be anywhere else. He didn’t want to be anywhere else. It was just us two in our own little world,” she said.

She remembered Storr, 35, as a kind, patient and loving partner who devoted himself to making her happy.

On the morning of the crash, the couple were preparing to travel to separate performances.

Ms Glinton was flying to the Turks and Caicos Islands with Da Rhythm Band, while Storr was heading to North Andros with Da Pond.

Storr dropped her off at the airport before leaving to catch his own flight.

The couple continued messaging after Ms Glinton reached Turks and Caicos, joking about her journey aboard an InterCaribbean Airways flight.

“He was texting me while I was in Turks, and I was texting him, telling him how we were on InterCaribbean and the pilot was driving the plane like a Passo,” she said. “So, we was laughing about it, and he was like, ‘you know, baby, he have to duck the air pockets or whatever.’”

Storr later messaged her as Da Pond prepared to board its flight.

Ms Glinton asked him to text her when the band landed. She never imagined it would be their final exchange.

A mutual friend later told her that the aircraft had crashed.

Ms Glinton initially refused to believe the report. She contacted one of Da Pond’s female singers, who had travelled to Andros on another flight, hoping to learn that the information was false.

Calls then poured into her telephone from people trying to determine whether she had been aboard the aircraft.

“People just kept calling me, calling me because they wanted to know if I was on the plane,” she said.

Her band director eventually confirmed the news she had desperately hoped was untrue.

“It still felt so unreal, and then they started sending like videos of the crash, and I’m just like, this can’t be happening,” she said, holding back tears. “I just looked at him this morning. I just kissed him this morning.”

Ms Glinton said she still has not fully accepted that Storr and his bandmates are dead.

She returned to New Providence from Turks and Caicos on Sunday, battling anxiety throughout the flight as her fellow band members rallied around her.

Since returning, she has been unable to enter the apartment she shared with Storr.

The disaster has also ripped through the country’s close-knit music community.

Ms Glinton has cancelled several performances because she cannot bear to return to the stage. Music and performing now summon memories of Da Pond and the five members killed in the crash.

Along with Storr, the crash claimed the lives of Da Pond members Giovanni McKenzie, Mateo Winder, Toniquea Gilot and Tra’vis Johnson.

Ms Glinton said McKenzie became one of her strongest supporters when she began her music career.

She remembered Winder as a big brother whose advice she could always seek, and Johnson for his captivating voice and personality.

Her memories of Gilot brought another surge of tears.

Ms Glinton described her as a woman with a beautiful voice and personality. Gilot contacted her moments before the flight departed to request a song and an audio recording.

“The last thing she said to me was that she appreciate me,” Ms Glinton said, her voice cracking.