EIGHTEEN years after a landslide almost wiped out his entire family in King’s Bay, Tobagonian Joseph Ferguson, 68, said death no longer affects him.

Ferguson lost his wife Shirley Nimblett-Ferguson, 43, and 16-year-old daughter Kathy-Ann Ferguson in a massive landslide at King’s Bay, Delaford, on November 12, 2004.

The landslide also claimed the life of another villager and left the road impassable for hours.

In an interview with Newsday at his Richmond Point home on Friday, Ferguson, who lives alone in a small concrete house, said he still misses his wife and child.

“It didn’t have nobody I love more in this world than that woman and that daughter,” he said.

Ferguson, who had five children when the tragedy occurred, said the incident scattered his family and ruined him financially.

[caption id="attachment_960255" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A picture of Joseph Ferguson, his deceased wife Shirley Nimblett-Ferguson, and one of his daughters who survived the 2004 tragedy. - Photo by David Reid[/caption]

Despite the incident, the former THA employee said he found the will to live and persevere through his surviving children and the support of good samaritans. He said his children – including one from a later relationship – are all doing well professionally and academically.

Recalling the day his life changed forever, Ferguson said rain had been falling for hours and water began seeping into the house, which was built at the foot of the mountain. Ferguson said two generations of his family had lived there without any mishaps.

A short distance away was a guesthouse owned by a German, who had hired Ferguson as his caretaker.

“My wife say, ‘Lewwe go up in the guest house.’

“By the time I go up in the guesthouse, the hardest sound I ever hear in my life. Like I in ah war. Is trees coming. Hundred and change ah trees coming down the hill.”

He said he was leading his wife and five children through a corridor to go to the back of the guesthouse when calamity struck.

“That landslide come and hit off the whole house. When I look around I eh see nobody at all – not even one of meh children. I start hearing bawling under rubble.”

Ferguson said the area was like a swamp. He began screaming their names and heard one reply.

“I eh know how I strong so. I lift up rubble and get out that child.”

“I carry out the first one. I come look around, get a next one, carry out a third done. I find a fourth one – he was standing by a tree like an island surround with water. I throw (myself) across. The water so heavy it carry me past the boy. I come back – tired. I throw again and get him and bring him ashore.”

Ferguson said the landslide was so devastating that neighbours could not get close to help until well over an hour later, when the water started to subside.

But his daughter had been killed instantly. His wife was eventually found alive, but had been buried up to her face. She spent around three month