Parents’ anguish

Not knowing where your child is can be one of the hardest things parents will face. Life becomes an inconsolable existence that never ends until the parents can hold that child in their arms again. This is the feeling of a family currently devastated by such loss.
Shireen Edun and her husband Sultan, visibly distressed, shared their anguish with Guyana Times Sunday Magazine about their son, Imran Mohamed, who disappeared and cannot yet be found, more than a year later.
Imran, Shireen related, left for school on June 5, 2012. He left at noon because he was writing his examinations; he was 17 years old at that time. As time passed, Shireen became anxious as her son did not return home. Her husband, Sultan, was also worried and went to the school. There they found out that Imran had not shown up at school, and this was not the first time.

“Normally I would drop him to school and pick him up back. But due to the time he had to go to school because of his tests, I couldn’t take him so he had to take the bus. When we see time pass for him to come home we got worried. When I went to the school they told me that Imran never showed up and that it wasn’t the first time this happened. Apparently, when I used to drop him he went somewhere else. We searched all over: by relatives, places he would usually go, the seawall, the hospitals, and decided to report him missing to the police. But we never find him back,” Sultan stated sadly.
Shireen noted that Imran never gave any indication he was unhappy. She stated he was a typical boy who watched cartoons and played with his friends. Shireen added that he even said he would never leave her.
“We are still searching for him. We even sent out flyers to interior locations. When he first went missing we put it on the TV and in the papers. I felt so hurt and helpless when my son went missing, but I had to keep going because I had a family to take care of. But it was very difficult. Imran and his siblings, his four sisters and one brother, lived very loving. I don’t know if he leave us or he was taken away. We never get no call or hear somebody say they see him. I don’t like to talk about it because I cry,” a tearful Shireen disclosed.
Sultan believes Imran was “lured into the interior to work” and that he is so “confined” that he cannot call home. He added that a friend, who works in the interior, told him that there were a lot of young boys working in those locations. Sultan believes that there might be a possibility that Imran was taken up there.
Imran’s sister Sultana, 14, said that he was a “good and willing” brother. She never noticed he was unhappy because he was always jovial.
“What I could remember is that one afternoon he came home from school with his shirt mashed and I asked him what happened. He told me he took it off to do physical education at school and when he put it on back it was mashed. When I looked into his bag I saw he had clothes in it, but never questioned him or think something like this would happen,” Sultana recalled.
Friends of Imran also recall that he was very friendly and helpful, but would sometimes leave school to go play at a “game shop” – something that some other students usually did as well.
Sultan maintained that Guyana needs organisations to help with missing children. He stated that here are such entities abroad that also offer hope and counselling for parents.
Both Shireen and Sultan are still hopeful that Imran is alive and one day would return home.
“We’re always praying and never giving up. We’re thinking positive that he will come back home. Some have said to me that one day he’s going to come back in a big van with children and his wife. I really want him to know I miss and love him and that everybody home misses him too and we’re waiting for him to return. We’ll work out everything together as a family and all we want is for him to come back home,” Shireen said, sobbing.
Hoping he is healthy and happy where he is, Sultan also beseeched Imran to call home just to say he is alive and well.
“Wherever he is, we want to know that he is happy. We want to hear from him because we are all very hurt that he hasn’t returned. I want to tell him to come back home or at least call. We’re here to welcome him and he should not be afraid to return home,” Sultan implored.
Encouraging other mothers of missing children, Shireen pointed out that prayer, being positive and having faith are important to cope with such loss. She and her husband are thankful. (Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)