Down the generations

Layla Wells, 36, from London

When my dear friend Jay confided in me that he lived in fear of a curse put on his family generations earlier, my heart went out to him. Years before, his grandma, who was from the West Indies, had fallen in love. But her parents had been so against the match, her mother had cursed all the men in his family. And, because they’d all died young, Jay believed he would, too. ‘Can you lift a curse?’ he asked me. I explained the you can only be free of a curse by truly believing that it doesn’t exist. But, in February last year, Jay was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

Sadly, in January this year, Jay passed away at the age of 35. It seemed the ‘curse’ had claimed him, too.

I would’ve given anything to have been able to help poor Jay. But, because he believed he was cursed, his fear came true.

He died because he believed