And while that family struggles to pick up the pieces after tragedy, the country could be standing at the precipice of industrial action.
That's because the government has floated proposed wage cuts for public officers and teachers.
The teachers publicly rejected that on Wednesday with a mid-morning motorcade, the timing of which made it impossible for public officers to attend.
They had to wait until today to show their solidarity. They did so in the city with a 30 car lunchtime motorcade, a small but determined demonstration against the loss of an essential portion of their livelihoods.
And this afternoon P.S.U. first Vice President Dean Flowers told me how members managed to take a stand without abandoning their public posts.
Reporter
"We saw a big motorcade in Belize City today. We were told its public officers taking a stand against the government's suggested wage cut. Tell me what the message was behind the motorcade and why public officers felt it was so important to stage it."
Dean Flowers, P.S.U. first Vice President
"What happened today was pretty much membership reaching out to the executive and saying we support the joint union negotiating team and we want to show a sign of solidarity amongst ourselves and for the union. So today's motorcades which occur across the municipalities was simply that a show of solidarity and a show of support for the joint unions negotiating team."
Reporter
"The criticism is if you wanted to show solidarity why not join the motorcade that the teachers had earlier in the week?"
Dean Flowers, P.S.U. first Vice President
"The public service is not currently in any trade dispute with the government and so we cannot participate in any motorcades that are within working hours. We work from 8-12 and we work from 1-5 Monday through to Thursday and up until 4:30 on Fridays. The teachers' motorcade was scheduled during working hours. There is absolutely no reason for us to be walking off our jobs or to be abandoning our posts to participate in motorcades when we are not in a trade dispute and hence the reason we were not able to participate in the teachers' motorcade. What I will say to you is that public officers who may have been on a day off or had the day free were in encourage to come out stand on the wayside or to join the motorcade and that did happened."
"The motorcades today were in solidarity with the joint unions with negotiation team. Yes, the joint unions acting on behalf of their joint membership has in fact rejected the proposals from government as were submitted. But I don't want us to get into this conversation about protest and industrial action because I don't think we are there yet. What we are doing is consulting with government trying to reach an agreement whereby we are saying to them that to fix the current economic crisis that we are in salary cuts is not the way. It doesn't serve your purpose, it does not serve the purpose of the business and it certainly does not serve the interest of public officers and their households who have been impacted and who will continue to be impacted even greater if we were to go this route."
We do note that there was not visible support on the sidewalks as the motorcade in the city passed by.
