She was our trophy Teen who was family’s first high-school graduate killed in road crash

For her 18th birthday on October 24, Tianna Taylor intended to spend the day with her mother Suzette Stephenson.

Unfortunately, those plans will never materialise as the teenager was killed in a motorcycle accident on Monday.

“She say ‘Mommy mi a carry yuh out fimi birthday and we going to have dinner. She said she was going to order two hair for me and her. Tianna was mi tail and the bond that mi and her have make some people think she was my only child. She was right there with mi everywhere and she always tell people that although I have eight of them, she was my favourite. There was nothing too good for her to share with me,” she said.

According to police reports, Taylor was the pillion on a motorcycle being driven by a man along Michael Manley Boulevard, heading towards Sir Florizel Glasspole Boulevard in Kingston. At 12:20 pm, the motorcyclist reportedly attempted to get between a truck and a Honda CR-V when the driver of the Honda made a lane change and hit the motorcycle. Taylor and the driver of the motorcycle were then run over by the truck. They were taken to hospital where she died while undergoing surgery.

The fifth of eight children, ‘TT’ as Taylor was affectionately called, was referred to as the ‘trophy’ of their family.

“She was the nicest little girl ever and she was our trophy. Everybody love her,” one sibling said as tears welled up in his eyes. Similar sentiments were echoed by her mother and stepfather David Gordon. Sitting on a verandah in Harbour Heights, East Kingston, Stephenson’s eyes were puffy from crying. Her ankles and legs were swollen, which the news team was told was due to a massive elevation in her blood pressure.

“We haven’t slept at all. I can’t explain the feeling that I am feeling in my stomach. Everything is nightmare. Right now we suppose to have a three-day candlelight [vigil] and it just nuh seem real. Everybody love TT eno, the young, old and even mad people,” Stephenson said.

A past student of Holy Trinity High School, Taylor had plans of joining the Jamaica Constabulary Force and was counting down the days to her birthday to start applying.

“She got five subjects and I remember the day when she took her graduation picture, I cried so hard when she send me. I didn’t get to graduate high school and none of her older siblings did so; she was the first. I was and still is so proud of her, and on the day of the graduation, when she took off her gown and put it on me, I cried again. That was everything for me,” Stephenson said.

Stephenson, a security guard, said that on Monday, she left her daughter at home with her younger sibling. During the morning, the two had light conversations and even cracked a few jokes. But during her lunch period, she saw a missed call and heard a chilling voice note from Taylor’s boyfriend.

“He said ‘Aunty Sue, mi and Tianna a go up and one van lick we off the bike and end up under a truck and Tianna nah talk’. Honestly speaking, when mi hear the message, mi curse about five bad word. Death never come across my mind still, but mi think she just unresponsive. I call my spouse and he went to the hospital same time,” she said. Gordon said when he rushed to the emergency department of the Kingston Public Hospital, he heard Taylor crying out for them.

“A lot of doctors were around her and she was crying to them that she was in pain. Then she said ‘Mi want mi mada and D’ because is ‘D’ she called me. I called out to her and tell her that I was right there with her and that was the last time I spoke to her. The doctors then told me that there was a 20 per cent chance of her surviving and that one of her legs had to be amputated. She was then rushed into theatre,” he said, his voice cracking.

Stephenson said upon her arrival at the hospital, she was told that her daughter was undergoing an operation and she prayed earnestly for her to pull through. But close to an hour later, she received the most nightmarish news ever.

“From I hear the doctors wanted to talk to mi, I know something was wrong. They explained to me that she had a lot of internal injuries and her head was also injured. They said they were operating on her and she had a seizure and she just didn’t wake up. I asked to see her and they went and cleaned her up ad then took her out to me and my entire body went weak. I was just crying and talking to her,” she said.

“I miss everything about my baby. I never expect this and she had so much plans for her life and it was just taken away from her. She was our little gem and her little brother misses her so much. Sometimes it’s like I don’t even know what to tell him. We should be looking towards her birthday and we still going to keep a little party for her, but she not gonna be here. We shouldn’t have to be planning a funeral at all,” Stephenson said between sighs.