by Charles Gladden

BLUE CREEK, Orange Walk. Mon. June 5, 2023

A four-year-old girl, Lindsie Jimenez of Guinea Grass Village, Orange Walk District, reportedly drowned on Sunday, June 4, while swimming with her family in Blue Creek Village.

According to reports, Jimenez’s family, who were seeking some relief from the intense heat, went swimming at a river near the Blue Creek Dam, but at around 4:00 p.m., while the family was in the water, Jimenez sank under the water and never resurfaced. Jimenez was later found through the assistance of persons in the area, but she was already dead.

Jimenez’s grandmother, who spoke to reporters in Spanish, which was translated into English, explained that her granddaughter was attached to her, and going to the river was a routine activity for the family.

“We always go to spend the evenings to cool down because it’s hot. She told her dad, ‘Let’s go, Daddy; let’s go to the river.’ We went, but we didn’t think anything would happen,” she said.

“She would have graduated from preschool, and her mother was already making plans for her graduation; but God didn’t want it like that. He took her too quickly. We didn’t think that she would die,” the grieving grandmother said.