A weeping mother has vowed to serve God and never to travel abroad for economic reasons after her son committed suicide yesterday.

Marcia Reid of Flankers, Montego Bay, cried uncontrollably after her 14-year-old son, Norris Smith, hanged himself on an ackee tree just chains from their house.

The suicide was allegedly in protest of his mother's plan to work in the United States.

Reid, a single mother of five, told The Gleaner that she had been working as a security guard on the night shift for 11 years and had become tired of struggling to make ends meet.

"Mi sit and talk with the three children now living with mi and explained the situation to them. Mi tell them mi was leaving for the US to work so life could be better for all of us.

"I told them I was going to leave them with someone, but would leave Norris with his father," a distraught Reid said.

She added: "Mi never know dem mean it when dem say if mi leave dem, they would kill themselves."

Ran off upset

The mother said she had worked Wednesday night but went to the hospital Thursday morning, as she was feeling ill. On her return home, she reminded Norris he would have to stay with his father as she was planning to leave sometime next week.

"Him just run off and the next time mi see him was when him hang himself. Oh God! Mi nuh deserve this. You want mi fi serve You and mi a go repent. Mi coming to You, God," she lamented.

Meanwhile, psychologist Dr Beverley Scott has urged parents to take suicidal threats seriously while simultaneously urging teenagers to confide in someone about their problems.

"Teenage years are very difficult years and they need to be mentored properly," she said.