The sound of laughter will be absent at the home of Cyon Paul this Christmas.
Instead, his mother, Safiya Williams, intends to drown her grief of losing the nine-year-old in a bottle of alcohol.
Paul was shot dead on his way to a food car near his La Romaine home on August 19. His killer remains at large.
Williams, who is now living downstairs her mother’s house with her daughter Tyra, eight, says she feels an emptiness inside since her son was murdered.
In an interview on Wednesday, she said: “We still cannot get over this. I am feeling really sad knowing that he (Cyon) real loved Christmas, out of all the holidays Christmas is the one he loved the most. He liked to eat the ham and apple and grapes.”
Although her mom is still trying to bring some Christmas cheer in the house, Williams said Christmas will never again be the same for her.
Cyon, who had aspirations of becoming an attorney, wanted a Nerf gun and his mother had intended to buy it for him for his birthday but he was killed before his birthday which was September 25.
“I am crying every day and my daughter cries sometimes and ask why they kill her brother. I am not really eating, I can’t. I am just drinking. I cannot help it I feel like I will go mad and hurt somebody.”
She had not shopped for a Christmas tree or any Christmas gifts.
“I am not celebrating Christmas this year. My son is not around me. I will buy clothes for my daughter. She might go by her father or spend Christmas with my mother.”
Her only Christmas wish is for the person responsible for killing her son to be arrested and brought to justice.
“I will never get back my son, but at least I will get some satisfaction knowing that his killer has been caught,” said Williams.
Robert Figaro, another parent who recently lost his four-year-old daughter to tragic circumstances, said his one wish for Christmas was to turn back the hands of time.
An emotional Figaro, in a crackling voice, said: “If I had one wish it would be to turn back the hands of time to be there for my baby. All of this would never have happened.”
Jenice, his only child, was beaten to death at her Coorasal home last month allegedly by a woman who Figaro had trusted.
Since the incident, Figaro, a casual worker at Trinidad Cement Ltd, has moved out of the house and is staying by his father who lives nearby.
“I start back to work and I am burying myself in as much work as I can. Most likely I will be working for Christmas, if not I’ll be at my father’s house.”
He said it is difficult for him to stay in his house without his daughter.
“Usually at my home it is festive for Christmas. I had already planned for Jenice and the two other children to help me with the Christmas tree and decorations. I always include them in anything I am doing. I was going to buy them bicycles for Christmas.”
He said his father has been trying to cheer him up, but it’s also hard for him.
“My father real love her too. He use to call her Cinderella. He did not even put up a (Christmas) tree.”
Figaro had left his daughter with the woman and her two children at his home on the night of November 24. He returned home about an hour later after the woman called him to find his daughter unresponsive.
The woman initially told police that the child complained of belly pain and urinated on herself after eating a meal of fries, ketchup and garlic sauce.
However, an autopsy concluded that Jenice was beaten to death. The police held the woman for questioning on Wednesday night.
Investigations are continuing.