(Kaieteur News) – Sitting opposite her home’s mirror, where her 16-year-old son, Andriel Bautista, used to stand fixing his curly hair before and after school, Anndyar Deally is turning her unbearable grief into a direct plea to the nation’s highest office.

Following a gut-wrenching maritime tragedy in the open Atlantic that took her son’s life, the 53-year-old mother is appealing directly to President Irfaan Ali to establish an affordable, state-subsidised air service for the people of Region One, so that no parent is ever forced onto a dangerous sea vessel again. The Department of Public Information (DPI) reported on January 14, 2026, that “For years, the residents of the hinterland have pleaded for more affordable air travel to and from Georgetown…”

Deally, her eight-year-old daughter Josmary, her late son, a 13-year-old girl, her nephew and his girlfriend were returning home to Port Kaituma after traveling to Georgetown to process official paperwork and buy school supplies. With airfare priced at an impossible G$30,000 per seat, the family had no choice but to rely on the government ferry. Now, suffering through trauma and mourning her “lovely, kind” boy, Deally says the government must provide safe, accessible air travel for low-income families, or separate passenger boats from heavy cargo.