Elderly woman seeks a home
Imagine losing your mobility, being in constant pain and having to share a tiny space with four other persons, while your next meal is always unsure. Well, this is the harsh reality for 62-year-old Veronica Arnold, who is desperately in need of medical and financial assistance.
When the elderly woman visited THE STAR last week, accompanied by her daughter, Aditha Mullings, her eyes welled up as she described her living condition.
“Where we are living now is not convenient for all of us. It’s one really tiny room, and that is where the cooking is done. There is only one bed, so my grandkids have to sleep on the floor. The little money that my daughter get from the little job that she is doing is barely enough to take care of the children. It is very uncomfortable for the kids because they have to sleep on the floor, and it pains my heart,” she said.
Arnold said that she was living along Gordon Road in St Andrew for years but had to leave the dwelling after gunmen served her notice in September of last year.
“I was given 24 hours to leave because my son-in-law got in a verbal confrontation with someone and they ‘needed’ our homes. They said my daughter and I had to leave. My daughter and I wasn’t speaking at the time, so she moved, and I didn’t know where she was. I went seeking for a home and someone then told me about the shelter,” she said.
Arnold said during the days, she would beg for food on the streets or visit churches and other entities in search of financial assistance.
She has since suffered a stroke and has been unable to walk on account of that.
“I am very depressed. I really don’t have anywhere stable to live … want to get therapy, but I can’t do it because I don’t really live anywhere,” she said.
Mullings is anxious for her mother to get medical care.
“I don’t know if anyone can keep her until I am back on my feet. The doctors had said that she could walk again if she got therapy, but we really don’t have a place for her to stay. It’s really rough on us,” she said.