‘Mi nuh supposed to live so’

Sweating heavily from the heat Thursday afternoon, 61-year-old Sandra Shepherd, sitting in her makeshift dwelling in Rosemary Lane in central Kingston, gets teary eyed as she reflects on the situation that led to her current homelessness.

Almost a year ago, Shepherd and her relatives were awakened from their sleep by the frantic shouts of a neighbour who was alerting them to a fire spreading to their home.

The fire, which she later learned was from an alleged arson attack on her neighbour’s house, eventually spread and engulfed her nine-bedroom house, leaving 18 people homeless, including seven children.

Fortunately, no lives were lost, but her family’s life was thrown into disarray.

A makeshift structure on the same property constructed from zinc, some sheets of plyboard, and a tarpaulin serving as a door is now their dwelling.

The structure is attached to two unfinished rooms, which she said were storage spaces before the fire.

Shepherd, who worked as a chef for more than 30 years, feels downcast that now she is without a kitchen to cook her family a meal.

Her utensils are placed on empty drums in the yard, clothes baskets are elevated on concrete blocks to prevent them from getting wet when it rains, and the three mattresses on which she sleeps with her daughters and grandchildren offer little opportunity for rest.

“Yuh know how long mi nuh lock a door or draw a window? Almost nine months now, a year. Mi nuh supposed to live so, mi nuh deserve it. A mad people live suh. Mi nuh mad,” a dejected Shepherd told The Gleaner.

After the fire, Shepherd said she was promised help from Member of Parliament for Kingston Central, Donovan Williams, who delivered some materials to help her rebuild her home. She said she engaged a workman to do the job and paid him $40,000 upfront but had not heard from him since.

Currently, 14 people, who include her daughters and seven grandchildren, live in the dwelling and the two unfinished rooms.

The children, ages one to 15, are enrolled in primary and high schools. Three of her daughters are employed but not earning enough to build a house, and Shepherd is currently unemployed.

There are no doors on the dwelling, and Shepherd, acknowledging that the community can become volatile, is concerned for her family’s safety.

“We just pray and sleep. We just pray, wi pray, wi pray… somebody can come even from the back there,” she said, pointing to the side of the dwelling.

“This is what I live on,” she told The Gleaner, displaying the different medications she takes to control her hypertension.

She said her symptoms are exacerbated because of her living conditions. During the daytime, the heat from the zinc is unbearable and makes her dizzy.

“Sometime mi all lay down pon di bed, (and) di bed a go over. Mi haffi a grab di bed. The heat and the tarpaulin a gi me hell,” she said.

Mulling over the “rough” life she has been dealt, she was dealt a huge blow by the death of her mother and son within days of each other, mourning her nephew the following year and then falling sick soon after.

Shepherd is adamant that although she is weary of her circumstances, she is not giving up.

“If mi don’t have a testimony fi my life story, how can I bring people to God?” she asked. “Mi shudda dead long time and mi bone white, but God put mi inna di potters room and Him roll mi, and roll mi and send mi back inna Him image,” the Christian of 12 years said.

Last week, Constable Christopher Taylor, district constable Maxine Robinson Bailey, and Corporal Adrian Cornwall from the community safety and security department of the Kingston Central Police Division brought attention to her living conditions by sharing a video on social media.

Since then, a grateful Shepherd said she has been receiving numerous calls from persons wanting to assist her and her family.

“Is a reason and a purpose because dem come here already and do the video already and send it out, and it never capture so much people like now, so a di time fi it. When a your time a your time,” she said.

Hoping that she will eventually be able to rebuild her “precious” house, Shepherd said this would make her content.

“And mi a good, good mada and granny, and worse, Sunday a come a Mother’s Day. Weh mi door and mi window weh mi a guh draw?

“Mi need help. We’re Jamaicans. Mi nuh foreigner, wi nuh refugee, we are Jamaicans, and Jamaicans supposed to help Jamaicans, especially when we have kids.”

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com

If you want to assist Sandra Shepherd please call her at 876-298-0954