Concerned group adopts senior citizen in Crofts Hill
Published:Saturday | February 8, 2020 | 12:00 AM
Edward Williamson’s life has been transformed. The man who has struggled through life for many years and had many difficult encounters started to experience happiness in recent times when a group from the community of Crofts Hill in Clarendon gave him a Christmas basket, last year.
The senior citizen, who estimates his age to be 70, said he grew up with his mother (now deceased) but his father disowned him.
Williamson told The Gleaner that in the past he worked for a man in the community but was never paid for his labour. He carried out odd jobs such as planting canes and anything else he got to do and managed to erect a partial structure where he now lives.
Hard times forced him to abandon further work on the house and, as a result, he has had to live in an incomplete room with dirt flooring, no windows and a roof that leaks.
All that changed when two members from the One Connection Group, Loraine Thompson and Tenisha Davidson Gillespie, visited him.
POOR LIVING CONDITIONS
“He was someone I saw all the time, but it wasn’t until we went to his home to present the basket and decided to go inside his room that we realised how he was living,” said Gillespie.
She said when she saw the condition of the room where Williamson lived it brought tears to her eyes.
“I went back home and put a text in the WhatsApp group that we have to do something for this man,” Gillespie shared, adding that his living condition was unacceptable.
“So immediately, the One Connection Group just adopt him and tried to fix up a room for him,” she told The Gleaner.
Gillespie said they pooled resources and cast the floor with concrete, painted the room, installed a window, bought him a stove and fan, and covered most of the roof with a material to prevent leaking.
Gillespie said that the group was also concerned about Williamson’s health and has arranged an appointment for him to see a medical practitioner.
Williamson expressed gratitude for the assistance he received. “Mi feel glad man,” he said.