St Bess senior makes ‘rebuilding’ trip to Kingston

Two months after Hurricane Melissa tore through sections of St Elizabeth, 65-year-old Patricia Jones travelled from Montego Bay to Kingston with no specific destination in mind, only with one hope - that someone would help her rebuild what the storm took away.

Jones, who lived in New Market, said her two-bedroom house was badly damaged during the hurricane, leaving her without a stable place to live.

"Everything gone, trees, roof, everything blow down," she said. "The house just crumble."

"The structure wasn't strong at all. It did terrible. If I was there, I don't know what would have happened," she added.

After the hurricane, Jones moved to Montego Bay, St James, to stay with one of her daughters. However, with limited space and resources, she finds it uncomfortable. Hence her trip into Kingston shortly before the new year.

"I leave out early and take the Coaster bus to downtown," she said, recalling that the journey was exhausting and frustrating, with long delays, as buses waited for passengers.

"It was a mess, but I make it," she said. Her journey to the capital, she said, was not one of relocation, but of persistence, moving from office to office hoping to find an open door. Without the means to purchase ply boards and zinc sheets, she said her only option is to seek assistance wherever she believes it may exist.

"This sound so unbelievable when I say it out loud but I come all this way in search for some help to buy zinc and board to build up back my little house." Her first stop was The Gleaner Company (Media) Ltd, hoping for her voice to be heard.

A mother of seven and grandmother to seven, Jones said her children are not in a financial position to help her rebuild.

"Everybody just trying to survive," she said. "I can't blame them. I bring them into this world to live, and that's what they're doing."

For most of her life, she earned a living doing domestic work, washing, cooking and cleaning, and later supplemented her income with small-scale farming. Age and illness, however, have made that increasingly difficult.

"I used to plant little things like scallion and sell them, but I can't manage that any more," she said.

Though she sometimes receives small support from relatives overseas, she stressed that food is not her main concern.

"I'm not hungry. Food not my problem. I just want a house," she said. According to Jones she had signed up for help and has given her number to multiple organisations whose representatives had visited her community shortly after the hurricane passed.

"I was just waiting on a call back and I don't know if it is the signal issue, but I have yet to receive any help from anyone with materials. So I just get up today and say to me self me need fi go look the help it nah go just come a me foot so," she told THE STAR.

The stress of the hurricane, she said, also affected her health. Suffering from low blood pressure, she became severely ill during and after the storm.

"I didn't even know if I would live to see Christmas," she recalled. "All through the storm I was outside, running up and down. The fear alone mash me up." With limited access to medical care, she relied on home remedies.

"I boil guinea hen weed, leaf of life, drink it with honey. I rub green alcohol all over my body," she said. The Yuletide season came and went without fanfare.

"There was no Christmas for me this year," she added.

Her story reflects the continuing struggles faced by many Jamaicans still trying to recover from Hurricane Melissa. While emergency assistance was provided in the immediate aftermath, some residents say they remain displaced, with few options available to rebuild their lives.

"Some people have it worse than me," Jones said. "Some sleeping on the roadside with tarpaulin over them. Plenty people still suffering."

Jones said that she is not asking for much. "I just want somewhere safe to live again."

Persons wishing to assist Patricia Jones may contact her at 876-788-4933.