Margaret James opens home to vulnerable kids
For more than three decades, Margaret James of Esher in Hanover has been opening her home to vulnerable children.
James, 58, is known throughout Hanover as Cecile but is fondly called mommy by the scores of children from whom she has been a foster parent.
This unsung hero told WESTERN STAR that her own tragedies influenced the way she has chosen to live her life. She lost six children, including a set of twins and triplets, all by way of stillbirth.
“After I lost my last child, I decided that was it for me,” the Rusea’s High School past student told WESTERN STAR. “So I commit myself to taking care of other children, and my home has been dedicated to that ever since.”
“In some instances, children are just taken there for the night,” she said. “When the police take them and have nowhere to put them, they take them here. I have cases where children have come, and when they are to leave, they don’t want to go.”
One of the children who is under her roof at this point is a
Nineteen-year-old Shamitha Pulikanti has always been determined to maintain the medical tradition established over the past two generations in her family. The teen is now preparing to enter the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery programme at the University of the West Indies.
Shamitha told WESTERN STAR that her medical pursuit has been influenced by her older sister, Thejasree, her parents and grandparents, all of whom entered the field of medicine.
“Becoming a doctor was always what I wanted to be. It must have been entrenched by my parents being doctors and my sister becoming one, but it was what I wanted to do, too,” said Shamitha, who graduated 17-year-old who has been living with James since she was one day old.
“She is who I know as mother and father,” said the student, who wants to have a career in hospitality entertainment. “No matter what I achieve in life, this is where I am coming back. This will always be home,” she said.
James said that the child’s mother left her in the hospital and she was handed over to her the same day.
“I purchased the first nipple bottle for her, took her to school, checked on her progress — everything,” she said.
And there is Kerry, who was placed in her hands at six months old. Kerry is now teaching in Montego Bay after graduating from Sam Sharpe Teacher’s College.
“She insists that this is home. She now has a child who calls me grandma. I am proud of their progress and that God has helped me to play a role in their lives,” James said.
James, who occupies a sixbedroom house, said that she intends to add two more rooms so that she can accommodate more children under her roof.
“I have to play my part by giving them the support. It is my passion,” she said.