‘He was a good swimmer’ – Grieving mother recalls last moments with son who drowned at Unity Beach

Just hours before he entered the waters at Unity Beach in a desperate attempt to save his pregnant fiancée, 31-year-old Andri Francis told his mother that he was a strong swimmer.

The conversation, recalled by his mother Imelda Francis-Haynes, is among the final memories she has of her son before he and 21-year-old Lyodisa Waldron disappeared beneath the waves on last Sunday afternoon.

The couple’s bodies were recovered on Tuesday following an extensive search operation, bringing a heartbreaking end to nearly two days of uncertainty for relatives and friends.

Francis-Haynes said she spoke with her son twice on the day of the tragedy.

Initially, Francis told her he was heading to a church service in Linden. However, after learning that flooding along the Linden-Soesdyke Highway had disrupted travel, he informed her that they would instead be spending the day at Unity Beach with family members.

Concerned, she urged him to be careful.

“I seh boy I don’t like that place… I seh be careful,” the grieving mother recalled.

Francis, however, sought to reassure her.

“He seh, ‘Mommy, I is a big boy, look how I big and I could swim well and all them thing,” she said.

According to Police, the couple was among a group visiting the beach when Waldron reportedly drifted into deeper waters and called for help. Francis immediately entered the water in an effort to rescue her, but both were overtaken by strong currents and disappeared.

Relatives who were at the beach said Waldron repeatedly called out for Francis as she struggled in the water.

“She keep shouting and shouting for he,” Francis-Haynes said, recounting what her eldest son told her.

Despite efforts to reach her, Francis himself encountered difficulties in the strong currents.

“When he left to go help her… like the current or something just pin he. He put up he hand and he seh, ‘Help me nah… I want help,’ and that was it. He gone,” Francis-Haynes further recalled.

The bodies of both Francis and Waldron were discovered Tuesday within mangroves along the Unity shoreline, ending an extensive search involving Police, Coast Guard ranks and volunteers.

Autopsies are expected to be conducted on Friday to determine their exact cause of death.