Tragedy hit Sierra Leonean family in New Jersey

By Sekou Dauda Bangura, New Jersey.

In less than a month after the death by drowning of the fourteen-year old daughter of a popular Sierra Leonean businessman in Somerset, New Jersey, the Sierra Leone community was hit hard again over the weekend when news spread like wildfire in the harmattan that an eighteen-year boy has died in Florida by drowning.

Vivian Ronald Jones, who graduated last year from Franklin High in Somerset, New Jersey, is reported to have died while attempting to save a life. "This is not just a big loss for the family, but a terrible loss to the entire Sierra Leonean Community in the Somerset/New Brunswick area," says a Somerset resident upon receiving the tragic news.

The late Vivian Ronald Jones is survived by his mother Ms Virginia Williams, and grandparents Mr. and Mrs.Victor J. Williams of 16c Ari Drive, Somerset Mews, Somerset, New Jersey. Close relatives include Oseh Jones, Alice and Brian Kay of Middlesex, New Jersey.

According to a family release, viewing is scheduled to take place on Friday, September 12, from 7pm to 9 pm at Anderson Funeral Home in New Brunswick; a funeral service at the United Methodist Church on George Street in New Brunswick, from 9 am to 11 am. After burial at Franklin Memorial Park in Somerset, there will be a reception at First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens on Route 27, Somerset, New Jersey.

For more information please call the bereaved family at 732-821-5908. Relatives and close friends to contact are: Oseh, Alice and Brian at 732-748-8896; Sekou Dauda Bangura at 609-994-8460 and Mr. and Mrs. O. Kamara at 732-331-8226.