[dropcap]W[/dropcap]e planned to meet a month or so ago, when Margaret Pratt emailed from the UK to say she would be in Saint Lucia to keep an appointment with the island’s prime minister. It would be her first visit since her husband Roger was killed aboard their boat, Magnetic Attraction, on January 17, 2014, when the couple was on holiday here.
We met at a restaurant where she and her husband had often dined together. She told me she had booked at the same hotel whose staff had shown her much kindness at the time of her husband’s murder. She was pleasantly surprised that they remembered her. They even arranged for her to be in her old room.
Although I was familiar with her story, this was our first meeting. She had good reason to be angry with Saint Lucia but Margaret proved most convivial. She wore a loose dress and a sunhat which gave her the appearance of a regular tourist, at least to the uninformed observer. For possibly the millionth time in her quest for closure, Margaret revisited the horrific details of her husband’s death. Four men—Richie Kern, Fanis Joseph, Jermoine Jones, and Kervin Devaux—were arrested and charged with Roger Pratt’s murder. They have not yet appeared before a judge and jury. Meanwhile Margaret continues her campaign, on social media as well as in the regular press, determined that Roger will not be denied justice.
“When I left Saint Lucia at the end of January 2014, I was really reassured that progress was being made, that four had confessed to the crime and there was really strong forensic evidence. The most disappointing thing is that since then, communications have not been good. I’ve not been kept apprised of what’s afoot. I still don’t understand what the problems have been, why it’s taken so long.” She said the forensic samples were collected at the scene and sent to an overseas lab for testing, but she learned about eighteen months later that “all the forensics had been contaminated and were of no use.”
As for her dealings with the Director of Public Prosecutions, Daarsrean Greene, Margaret said: “I think he’s moved it forward. We’re now talking about a trial date but there’s still a long way to go. If someone tells me what’s going on and why, even though I may not entirely get it, at least I’ve got something to hold on to. When everyone goes quiet, when there’s radio silence, I don’t get that at all and it’s very unhelpful.”
Margaret and Roger Pratt were married when she was 22 and he 25. Their doomed sailing adventure to Saint Lucia in 2014 was to celebrate another milestone in their lives: Margaret’s 60th birthday. In the years since her husband’s death Margaret has learned strategies to celebrate as a widow, whether or not at Christmas time. “You find ways . . . being with people who understand your situation. I think that’s the easiest way of explaining it. The pain never really goes away. But you do find strategies for . . . just coping really.”
