12 months after Barita Goldberg was working as a cashier at Lekki toll gate, her last words were still being spoken by her younger brother, Dennis.
The Lekki toll gate killed my son. Of course he was innocent. But for the first 11 months, he died in my arms. pic.twitter.com/yntsp1Vpvs — INXS Twin Towers (@5dennisgoldberg) November 14, 2018
He was her son David, was working at the toll gate on Lagos’s Lekki Peninsula on November 9, 2017, when an army truck hit David while he was trying to stop a school bus driver from taking children onto the road.
The official toll-gate death toll is 13— David was one of many who survived but were injured.
Goldberg and her husband, who are both former school teachers, did not have a good relationship.
It has been 1 year since they lost their little sweetheart and I can’t say it’s getting any better. They used to get along nicely so today I can’t even say that I miss him pic.twitter.com/98r84Kw9pv — INXS Twin Towers (@5dennisgoldberg) November 14, 2018
She could not use the phone after it was slammed to the floor.
“Please leave it on,” Dennis pleaded.”
He called all night on the voicemail but it went unanswered.
The following morning, a phone call was the only answer he had got.
“My darling,” he told her. “Do not fret.” He said it with so much conviction.
“I swear. David will be alright. He only needs one more operation to get him out of hospital. My darling.”
The surgeon had removed two tubes from David’s body and the father was rejoicing. He rubbed his skin with a balm his son made him.
“He’s going to be okay.”
“We have some time now to keep an eye on him.”
“It’s true.”
“We will do whatever we can.”
She did not believe him.
The funeral was delayed as the couple spent the following months fighting for custody of David. They were engaged, but he was a baby when they met.
“We have lost our son but our marriage is back on track. Things are getting better now.”
“He (the surgeon) said he would perform the last operation only after we tell him of our intentions.”
My beautiful David would not have gone into an operation if he knew this: We cannot do this alone… pic.twitter.com/EDDZVHaMhZ — INXS Twin Towers (@5dennisgoldberg) November 14, 2018
The operation never took place.
According to the criminal case brought against the driver, the police have not arrested her son’s alleged killer.
Goldberg said: “Dennis will come back on November 14, but right now the police is the one holding my son.”
The officer who told my husband we could only see him for one hour a day is now gone…but my son is still a threat to him pic.twitter.com/fmJL0wxlJR — INXS Twin Towers (@5dennisgoldberg) November 14, 2018
Dennis has not returned to work and still in the hospital. But she is struggling to make ends meet and the memories of David haunt her.
He was her sole support and the sole defender of her marriage.
“We have lost our son but our marriage is back on track. Things are getting better now.”
“I am always looking after the kids. They have taken on the role of raising David and taking care of the home.”
“We have no plan of moving. I’m staying here forever,” she said.
She cries whenever she listens to David’s car songs.
She constantly brings up the past. She is running out of words. Every time I call, she apologizes. https://t.co/8O29sROSfS — INXS Twin Towers (@5dennisgoldberg) November 14, 2018
“I cry whenever I listen to David’s car songs. It is like he is singing in my head all the time.”
“But the more I listen to his music, the more I think that life was actually meant to be with him. My David was life.”
The couple do not know the names of the two truck drivers.
