SICKLER PLEADS FOR A HOME “
While many will be sharing in the merrymaking and all the niceties that Christmas brings, St Elmo Lewis will be sitting home alone, hoping 2017 will bring him a more comfortable place to call home.
The 52-year-old Lewis has been diagnosed with sickle cell disease since he was a child, which has caused a deformity in his right leg.
“I used to live with my mom, but since she died in 2000, dem turn me out of the place we used to live. I went and got permission to live on the church compound, but they later told me I couldn’t live there any longer either, so I had to find somewhere else to go,” he explained.
Lewis has tried to better his situation, but to no avail.
“I tried to get in touch with Food For The Poor to get a house, but they said they don’t build on government land without permission. So I went and got the permission and a letter from the MP and tried contacting them again, but all now I don’t get no word from them,” the visibly sick man told THE STAR.
Although he used to be a carpenter, he couldn’t properly take care of his health and laments that since his mother died, “Mi a batter from place to place”.
Lewis said his other relatives who are willing to help don’t have much, and “is a friend give me here so fi kotch,” he said, pointing to the dilapidated structure in which he now lives.
The house is located next to the Full Truth Church in Effortville, Clarendon.
“Where I sleep, the ceiling can cave in on me at