THE DEPRESSING LIFE OF AN 80-YEAR-OLD MAN
Richmond, St Mary, resident relates inhumane conditions
BY ROMARDO LYONS Staff reporter lyonsr@jamaicaobserver.com
WHEN it rains, 80year-old Stanley Morrison has to sit in a chair in his one-room board dwelling with no electricity or water until his bed dries.
His roof is made mainly of tarpaulin and is riddled with holes and sunburn.
Morrison has been living in the structure in Richmond, St Mary, for over 60 years with his wife until she died in 2019. Morrison, who has no biological children told the Jamaica
Observer that life has been routinely challenging.
“When rain fall, the whole house wet up. Sometimes mi affi sit down up pon the chair until day light because the bed wet up. The tarpaulin leaking. Mi have it rough.
From morning until now mi not even drink likkle tea and mi trouble wid di gas. Most time a mi friends and neighbour dem help me out and give mi food, and my stepchildren. The doctor seh mi caa do the hard work again. So, mostly, my stepdaughter have to look after me,” he said on Thursday.
The once self-sufficient farmer and gardener said those strenuous working activities began taking a toll on his health. As a result, he discontinued working upon his doctor’s orders.
“I used to do farming and bush work. I used to go round a chop bush in people yard and they pay me for it. I used to do that from my younger days and people always pay me. Mi nuh have nothing. I don’t have light and water inside. I use a lamp and right now I don’t have any kerosene oil.”
Morisson told the Sunday Observer that he often walks to a river in the area to get water.
“I have a drum around the back and when rain fall I let it full. And, sometimes, I go down to the river and full bottles and come back up. Mi have it rough. Over 60 years mi deh in this little place, and my wife died. It’s sickness why my wife died, and now it’s me alone in