MV Barima Tragedy: Family’s journey to bury mother ends in heartbreak

What was meant to be a final farewell to a beloved mother has instead become another heartbreaking chapter in the MV Barima tragedy.

Percy France is among those still missing after the passenger vessel capsized off Guyana’s coast on Saturday night while travelling from Georgetown to Port Kaituma.

France was accompanying the body of 47-year-old Thelma Bovell, who had died from medical complications, so she could be laid to rest in her hometown.

Travelling with them were Bovell’s children, 20-year-old Joan and Kevin, along with other relatives who had gathered to say their final goodbye.

Instead, the family found themselves fighting for their own lives when the vessel capsized about seven miles offshore.

Joan survived the ordeal by clinging to a section of the vessel’s bridge cover for hours in the darkness before rescuers reached her early Sunday morning. Her brother also survived.

Her father, however, remains missing.

The family’s search for closure has now been overshadowed by agonising uncertainty as relatives wait for news of Percy France while also mourning Thelma Bovell, whose funeral journey ended in one of Guyana’s worst maritime disasters.

Their story is one of many personal tragedies emerging from the sinking of the MV Barima, where families already coping with loss have been plunged into an even deeper nightmare.