Living in squalor

Filth and days of unchanged diapers will assault your senses when approaching the dilapidated one-room structure glaucoma patients Hugh Wauchope, 75, and Lorna Allen, 68, had no choice but to settle into at 11 Miles in Bull Bay, St Andrew, 19 years ago.

The former seamster and seamstress, who once lived in the buzzing capital city of Kingston, said when the land they previously occupied was repossessed two decades ago and they were ordered to leave, they went into the hilly terrain of 11 Miles.

Since then, they say life has only been going downhill for them. The couple has no running water or electricity since they made the move.

Their standard of living is one The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022 refers to where it states that two million Jamaicans, more than two-thirds of the population, are unable to afford a healthy diet. That study further notes that some 100,000 Jamaicans were added to that pool in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, up from 1.9 million in 2019.

Their story is also one hundreds of elderly Jamaicans, especially those living in rural communities, have shared repeatedly. The couple is of the view that if better infrastructure for retirement were in place for entrepreneurs and non-government workers in Jamaica such as them during their younger days, then they would now have a better standard of living and a retirement fund.

The couple both suffer from untreated glaucoma, with Wauchope now being 100 per cent blind. Allen is about 50 per cent blind. To add to those health challenges, Wauchope suffers from an untreated case of hernia, is bedridden as a result, and it is Allen on whom he depends to care for him while she herself is in dire need of care.

With their lack of funds, the duo cannot recall when last they have been to a doctor.

The couple has one autistic son who sleeps somewhere around the house at nights and roams the community in search of odd jobs. He is unsettled because one side of the house is filled with garbage, and he is not mentally stable enough to maintain a job and earn an income to care for their needs.

Their standard of living is one many would describe as them having fallen from grace, but it is one they are seeking assistance in fixing.

“The situation came about 19 years ago when I started to get blind. We weren’t living here at that time. We were living in the Cross Roads area at a central location, but inevitable circumstances forced us to come up here and live 16 years ago,” Wauchope, the former breadwinner for the family, told The Gleaner during a visit to their house last week as they lay on their bed unable to move.

“It [the construction of the one-room house made of rotted zinc and boards] was done in what you would call an urgency... . They were pushing us out, so we had no other alternative than to find somewhere and sort of bitch up something with the intention that in the future we would do better, but that didn’t present itself,” he said.

Wauchope said he had a gut-feeling that things were going downhill for him when he was hospitalised in 2010 for his failing health with a hernia.

“I realised that I might have developed a mild stroke [as well], and I wasn’t able to move around,” he explained.

Did a lot of charity work

Wauchope, who once handled clothing for manufacturers in Jamaica, recalled that in the past he would give to charity, and laughed while talking with The Gleaner, about the fact that he was in a worse position now than many persons he used to assist.

“My passion in life, at an early age, was law, but at a later stage, I came to realise that I wanted to do something with my hands, so I became a fashion designer. I did a lot of charity work during the 1980s. I was called back into the community in which I was born [Hannah Town], which was a peeved community, that political direction was the order of the day, and I tried to see if I could disseminate some wisdom along similar lines to some of the youngsters so they would be able to do something,” Wauchope explained.

Wauchope said life blossomed for him, especially in the days when he coordinated a factory and manufacturing plant and met Allen and started their relationship.

While he recalled their story for The Gleaner, Allen tried to fan mosquitoes with one hand, and used the other as a holder for her chin.

Amid all their challenges, the depressed woman said she thinks above their circumstances.

“I don’t let it trouble me too much. What bothers me sometimes is the state of the house and the hill to walk up to the house. I just want the house to be clean and a mattress for my son to sleep on because someone gave him a bed frame, but he has no mattress,” Allen said.

“My vision is going badly, but I am trying. I tried to get a new pair of glasses, but I am still not seeing well from it. I just went to look if I could get a breadfruit, and because I can’t see well, I never got one. I oftentimes am afraid to get lost in the bushes. One day recently, I got lost. It’s a good thing I had my phone and I called my son and it was long after that he came looking for me and found me, and it’s all because I can’t see well, but what more can I do but keep trying? I still have the gift of life,” she said.

Amid it all, she refuses to cry because her faith is beyond measure. Allen said many persons have come before and offered assistance, but she has faith that a full breakthrough will come through for her one day.

One thing she pointed out was that although living without running water and electricity, she insisted over the years that they would not steal it as other persons in the hilly terrain.

When asked how she charged her mobile phone, she said she asked a justice of the peace nearby to charge it for her daily.

Persons interested in reaching out to assist the couple can reach them at 876-871-7054.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com