KOTA KINABALU: Seventeen-year-old Xavier Junior Aristotle would always be haunted by his mother’s cry for help, which was the last thing he heard from her before she was found dead alongside his younger brother in a landslide in Papar.
During Monday’s landslide, he remembered being awakened by his mother’s screams.
“I heard her screaming for help. I jumped out of bed and ran out of my room to see earth crushing our house and the walls falling apart,” he said when met at the temporary relief centre in Kg Mook, Papar, yesterday.
Xavier went towards his mother’s room but could not open the door, so he scrambled to grab anything that could break it open.
“When it finally opened, all I could see was earth. There was no opening and I was scared, so I ran out of the house and saw my father stuck in the landslide,” he said, adding that he tried to run back into the house but he could not hear anything anymore.
He proceeded to help his father, Aristotle Jude Joseph, get out of the debris, and they had no choice but to flee to a safer place.
Rescuers later managed to dig out both victims, Emily Johnny, a 38-year-old healthcare assistant and her 11-year-old son Xarell Myre.
They were laid to rest on Wednesday.
Xavier said he is guilt-stricken for being unable to save his mother and brother, as well as for not listening and acting on her repeated instructions to clean their storeroom.
“My mother had repeatedly asked me to clean the storeroom behind our house because it was full of heavy and unused items,” he said, adding she had also expressed worry when the rain continued for days before the tragedy.
“She told me many times, but I put it off. I cleaned a little and then left it. In the end, that trash-filled storeroom had crashed into our house and crushed my mother and brother.
“Probably if I had cleaned the storeroom, it wouldn’t have been this bad. I am sorry, and my heart aches,” he said.
When the remains of his mother and brother lay in their coffins, he apologised to them for not being able to save them.
“Now, I have to be strong for my father, because I am all he has left, and if I break down, I fear that he will, too. I must take care of him now,” he said.
When they were met at the temporary shelter in Kg Mook yesterday, both Aristotle and Xavier appeared calmer, but still withdrawn.
Aristotle, who could not eat for three days, only managed to eat a little on Wednesday night.
He suffered from bruises and other injuries following the landslide, but has yet to go to the hospital for a proper checkup.
Medical officials had personally gone to the centre to check on him and his injuries, but he is still in a state of shock and trying to recover from the tragedy.
“My wife was the one who used to arrange everything, and now I am at a loss. I never had to list out the details when planning anything before, but now...,” he said, unable to continue.
