Sad Christmas for Shindlar’s family

AS many families across the country prepare to celebrate Christmas, there is an atmosphere of sadness at the home of missing 16-year-old, Shindlar Cuffy. Her mother Shondel Shallow said her only wish is to hold her daughter in her arms and hug and kiss her.

“If I had known that day would have been the last day I would be seeing my daughter, I would have hugged her longer and kissed her more. I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye. The pain that I feel gets worse everyday. We can’t celebrate Christmas without her,” Shallow told Sunday Newsday yesterday at her home on Rosehill Trace, Claxton Bay.

On November 26, Shallow put her daughter in a taxi to be taken to Marabella North Secondary School. But the teenager never arrived at the school.

Today marks 13 days since the form five student has been missing.

“My daughter loved Christmas. She loved cleaning, painting and buying gifts, cooking and baking. If she was here she would have been so excited. She was my happiness and now my happiness is gone,” Shallow

She said her body is exhausted as she struggles to sleep. “I jump up in the middle of the night with nightmares then I cannot go back to sleep. My body is tired, oh God I don’t know what to do again.”

Every time her cell phone rings, Shallow hopes it is news that her daughter is found alive.

“Before I answer it, I look up and prayer hoping that is the phone call that the police or someone found my baby. But is never that.”

Cuffy’s father, Joshua Maynard, said his life has been turned upside down since his daughter disappeared. He has spent the past two weeks driving through areas just hoping to see her.

Shallow saw her daughter get into a taxi (white AD wagon) on the Southern Main Road, Claxton Bay. At the time, there were two other passengers in the car–a man and a woman. The Anti-Kidnapping Unit has intervened and questioned several people but to date they have not found any clues that could lead them to the girl.