79-Y-O BATTLING POOR SIGHT, HARD TIMES
As she treads through the hills of Aberdeen, St Elizabeth, Emelyn Banton balances a bottle on top of her head, focused on making it to her destination without spilling the liquid inside.
Banton, 79, revealed that she had just walked a mile from home to fetch water that she needed to do chores.
“A just some plate me a go use it wash because me nuh have no water at home and me go over the churchyard to get this,” she told THE
STAR. “The water very heavy to bring in my hand so that’s why me have to put it on me head.” Banton doesn’t want to walk such a long distance for water, but she lives alone and there is no one to assist her around the house.
“Is me, my niece and aunt used to live at my house but them dead and is just me alone leave and me don’t have no other way so me just have to do things for myself,” said Banton. Adding to her plight, Banton’s eyesight is slowly fading due to cataracts she has had since 2019.
“My eyes are getting very bad because sometimes everything just look dark but I have to go on,” she said. “When me go the road for water or any other thing a just God me ask to protect me until I reach home.”
Banton said she has not heard from her son, whom she believes is in Clarendon, based on their last conversation about two years ago.
I DON’T HEAR BACK FROM HIM
“From the last time me tell him say me have the cataract and him say he was coming to get me so I could go where him live to do the surgery, I don’t hear back from him,” she said. “Me call him number and it say unavailable, I don’t know what happened. People tell me that them see him, but if he is still around a want him to come and see me because he knows where I live.”
Life has been challenging for Banton, who said that her only source of income is what she gets for cleaning the church she attends.
“Them pay me J$3,000 every month and me use that to buy little stuff that I need,” Banton told THE
STAR. “Sometimes I don’t have anything to eat. Even Thursday gone and is like God send a man and him dig a piece of yam give me and me cook it. Me have a sister in Williamsfield, but she can’t help me because she is in need also.”
Banton is in need of assistance and is hoping someone can come to her rescue.
“Me need food or anything I can get because it is not easy for me and I have no help from anyone,” she said.
“I would love to get the cataract off my eyes too, but I don’t know the cost yet. I have to go back to Black River hospital to find out,” she said.
Anyone willing to assist Emelyn Banton may call her pastor, Mr Denton at (876) 835-3247