MOTHER M OF FIVE APPEALS FOR HELP TO BUILD A HOUSE
On the surface, TraceyAnn McLean, 34, might appear to be just another woman with several children who is appealing for help. A closer look, though, reveals a series of unfortunate events that have left the mother of five in a desperate situation, which, she says, she is not ashamed to seek help to overcome.
The father of her two eldest children died of kidney problems, and she got into another relationship that yielded three more children, she explained in an interview with THE STAR. But then the unimaginable happened. Her spouse was charged with molesting a family member.
“It is before the court. That case is still going on. Now that breaks my heart, my mind, my soul, everything. I was depressed. I start praying for myself (and) that makes me started to feel better,” she explained.
The victim in the case is now 16. She is currently in state care. McLean, who lives with her children in Gayle, St Mary, is a fighter. She has seized every opportunity that has come her way to make her life better. However, like so many persons, the advent of the COVID19 pandemic has set her back quite a bit.
“I wash and clean fi people, I bake and sell, I did have a likkle stall in mi yard where I usually sell but due to a me alone an’ nothing naw gwaan, everything go down. Mi plant and sell flowers but mi cyaa get no buyers yah now. Nutten naw gwaan now. Since the COVID everything hard an’ a me alone,” McLean said.
Added to that, a new problem has arisen. She has been given notice to vacate the premises she occupies with four children as the owners want to demolish the building.
SEEKING HELP
She needs, and is seeking, help to construct a small dwelling on land she has been given permission to build on.
“I’m living in a rent house and the condition is not really suitable for me and the kids, and I got notice but I got a piece of land from a family member and I save and bought four sheets of ply and I just need help with some more material to build a small dwelling,” McLean explained.
“I can get help to build it, people willing to help me. I could get help to build it but I just don’t have the material. Some ah di time mi hardly can find food but only through anything mi cook mi kids dem wi eat. An’ mi can cook an’ mi can bake, so mi always try fi bake an’ mek drops or any likkle thing. Any likkle work mi get; mi wash, mi wi clean same way. At the end a the day mi nuh waa go do nutten wha mi nuh feel pleased inna mi self bout.”
McLean explained that because she had to flee her last relationship because she was “in a bad situation”, she was forced to accept the premises where she currently resides, despite it being in a poor condition at the time. And it has got worse now.
“I accept the house because I didn’t want to go back where I’m coming from. But the condition is getting really bad and the owner say them have to demolish it, so I have to find somewhere. Them give me some time. Is good people them, for is long time mi nuh pay them, honestly; long time mi nuh pay no rent, mi naw tell no lie,” she said.
McLean reiterated that she really needs help to build a dwelling for her children.
“I feel a way in my heart, words can’t explain. I have been seeking help for the last three years and nothing. Sometimes I can’t afford pampers and food. I literally beg for work for my kids to eat, God see and know. I pray night and day,” she said.
“I cry night and day. My daughter saw me crying and asked me if I am crying. I said ‘no, blow in my eyes for me, something got in my eyes and it’s burning me.’ But God see and know, I was sitting and all of a sudden I just burst out in tears due to the fact that I am unable to make ends meet.”