President, Friends of Trelawny Association
NEW YORK –Members of The Trelawny, Jamaica Diaspora in the United States have expressed deep shock and disappointment with the savage and brutal killing of 79 year old retired nurse Hyacinth Hayden at her Green Park home in Trelawny on New Year’s Eve.
Derrick Scott, president of Friends of Trelawny Association Inc., (FOTA) a New York based group that organizes an annual Trelawny reunion in New York, said the killing was especially shocking for “Trelawnyites” in the Diaspora because “many of us dream of returning to Jamaica like Matron Hayden did, but are concerned about such senseless killings which serve only as an indictment on the parish.”
Scott said the Trelawny Diaspora organization which has membership all over the US, London, Australia, Canada and Jamaica has been inundated with phone calls and emails and alarming posts in social media since the New Year’s eve murder.
Hayden, a former matron at the Falmouth Hospital, was stabbed multiple times by her assailant or assailants. Her husband on his return from the shop discovered her body in the kitchen. He had gone to buy phone cards.
“We are all in shock,” Scott said, noting that Hayden, affectionately known by most as simply “Matron Hayden,” was well know to many second and third generation families living in the United States, UK and Europe.
“Matron Hayden was present for many of our birth and tended to most of us and our families health needs at the Falmouth Hospital. We have all interfaced with her directly and indirectly through her activities in church and community activities. We will definitely miss her and deeply express our sympathies to her husband, children and extended family and the community for which she worked tirelessly” Scott said.
He said condolences mixed with angry comments have flooded FOTA’s Facebook page as residents took to Social Media to express their outrage. Many posters are calling for a speedy police investigation and hope the killer or killers were caught rather quickly.
“I cannot believe it,” one poster noted. “Sis Hayden was one of the nicest person I had the pleasure of working with. You were a true professional. The sad thing is you saved so many lives and ushered so many lives into this world yet you were taken out ‘BRUTALLY.’ RIP.”
Scott pointed out that the Trelawny Diaspora group considered Matron Hayden as one of the unsung heroines of the parish who gave tremendous contribution to the health sector; as a senior Justice of the Peace; an outstanding Deacon of the Baptist Church as well as many other community organizations. “The parish will be poorer as a result of her untimely death.”
He has called on the citizens of Trelawny to reclaim the parish from these heartless criminals by working with the law enforcement agencies and volunteering information which can lead to their apprehension and conviction.
The FOTA president has commended the Trelawny police for their swift action in apprehending one suspect, and has called on law enforcement not to leave any stone unturned in bringing those responsible to justice.
The Friends of Trelawny President called on Jamaicans at home to resolve to work with the security forces in their respective communities to identify the perpetrators of all crimes. “We strongly believe that were there not market for the spoils of their crime, a great decrease of robberies would be seen nationwide.”
