Man seeks help to rebuild after tree smashes home

Life for 28-year-old Garnet Silvanous Johnson has always been heading downhill.

Johnson said it all started when he was reportedly given up by his mother, in Chudleigh, Manchester, when he was seven months old in 1993.

When he returned home last Thursday after selling shrimp on the streets of the city, he was shell-shocked to find the humble board house he built at Georges Close in Waltham Park smashed by a decades-old tree.

It cost Johnson about J$400,000 to construct and furnish the room, which has a bed, dresser, television, fan and other small items on which the tree trunk still rests.

“Mi nuh so 100 still from the other day inu, but mi just affi gwaan keep up,” Johnson told The Gleaner when asked how he was coping with the situation.

Johnson has been living in the Waltham Park Road area for about 15 years and was employed by Caribbean Broilers (CB) up to 2017.

He said that funds he had saved from his job at CB were what he used to cobble the structure together.

Thursday’s freak tragedy has left him homeless.

“You have to practically seh mi nuh live noweh; two chair mi sleep pan,” he said.

As a former ward of the State, Johnson recalled how difficult it was for him growing up without parents.

“My past has been very rough. As a youth, mi de pan mi own from mi 17 [years]... Mi nuh really like talk bout it, fi remember back all dem thing deh,” he said, before breaking down in tears.

Johnson was raised at two childcare facilities: Windsor Lodge Children’s Home and St John Bosco Boys’ Home.

He said the destruction of his house pales in comparison to the emotional scars he has sustained having grown up without his family.

“Mi still nuh know mi parents. Mi nuh know if mi have sister or brother. Dem just seh mi mada just give me up,” he said.

Johnson’s birth certificate shows that he was born on April 3, 1993. Today marks the 28th year since his birth was registered on October 6, 1993, and was witnessed by a woman named Lorna Anderson.

He has a message for his parents or anyone who might have known him as a child.

“Mi just want fi seh ‘Give thanks to you guys who made me and God ... . As much as mi a suffer and nothing nah gwaan, mi still a live up because mi want fi see unnu, mi want fi know unnu,” he said, teary-eyed.

Previous attempts at finding his family have been unsuccessful.

Johnson is seeking assistance in rebuilding his life.

He does not own a cell phone but persons interested in helping him may call neighbour Letheisha Morgan, who witnessed the tree falling on his house, at 876-339-0426.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com