In a phone conversation with her son Evand on Sunday, Eberdney Smith expressed a burning desire to retire and return to her hometown in Jamaica.
After years of working in the United States and the rest of her life as a nanny, the 56-year-old St. Elizabeth woman felt it was time to enjoy the fruits of her labor.
Evand said he has started building a nursing home in the parish.
But just hours after that call, in a cruel twist of fate, Smith, her employer Adina Azarian, and her 2-year-old daughter Aria and pilot Jeff Hefner were killed in the afternoon. He died in a plane crash in Virginia around 3:30.
Evand said he was unaware of his mother’s death until Monday morning when relatives informed him.
“It’s really devastating, you know. It really hurts,” said Smith’s only child, Evand. The Greener yesterday.
He called her hilarious, and said that her frequent inquires about her extended family and their well-being, and the help she frequently offered to them, proved her selflessness.
“She says she wants to go home and relax and enjoy her old age in the country. I wanted to settle down,” said the 29-year-old man, adding that his mother was the breadwinner and sent him money frequently.
She started working as a live-in nanny for luxury real estate broker Azarian. Because the woman was pregnant with her daughter during the pandemic and needed help to cope with her demanding job.
Evand said Azarian had fallen in love with her mother’s cooking and was pleased with her care for Aria.
According to him, the toddler was madly in love with his mother and was very attached to him.
“She was a chef at heart. Her passion was cooking for people. Her bosses loved her because they gave her, they love Bummy and Ackee,” Evand said of her mother.
“They love her sleeping. Rickle’s baby girl loves her too. hurt me,” he added.
Smith’s death will be the third in the family in recent months.
A commercial airliner, a Cessna 560 Citation V, was reportedly flying from Tennessee and scheduled to land on Long Island, New York, but crashed in the mountains in rural Virginia.
The three had just returned from a four-day trip to North Carolina with Azarian’s adoptive parents, John Rumpel and Barbara Rumpel, prominent Republican donors.
Military aircraft scrambled
According to US media, just before the crash, six military planes were killed because they did not respond to air traffic controllers’ responses, did not land at their intended destination, Long Island MacArthur Airport, and instead flew over Washington, D.C. We scrambled and intercepted.
The F-16, which was authorized to fly at supersonic speeds, flew a combination of “maneuvers and flares” for 30 minutes. new york times He reported a failed attempt to get the pilot’s attention.
Military pilots said the 69-year-old Hefner became unresponsive and collapsed after approaching the aircraft.
They determined the aircraft was not a threat before the final crash.
Hundreds of social media users reported hearing a loud blast on Sunday, which U.S. officials later said was the result of a military aircraft flying at supersonic speeds.
Nadine Anderson Hunter, a Jamaican from suburban Annapolis, Maryland, said: The Greener Yesterday she was hosting a poetry session at her home just after 3pm.
“I heard a loud boom and the house shook,” she recalled.
Anderson Hunter said he ultimately ignored the noise because of frequent naval exercises and high-flying flights in the area.
She said the county later disseminated information about the crash.
“It’s unfortunate that the passenger died,” she said.
A friend of Smith’s, Charmaine Williams Nelson, recalled the Jamaican’s wonderful character.
“I am very, very sad. I spoke to her on Friday. She was a wonderful person and a friend,” said Williams-Nelson. “She was a wonderful Christian. She was someone I could talk to about anything and give advice.”
kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com
