‘Is like a God sen’ him’

Forty-four-year-old Christopher Gordon has struggled all his life, but was never able to pull himself up out of poverty.

Living near the highway in a 36-square-foot shack with dirt floor in the community of Vanity Fair, Linstead, was all he could afford. His condition, however, did not escape the eyes of Clement Dehaney, an employee at Windalco who single-handedly secured the material and paid for the construction of a 12-foot-by-12-foot room for the struggling man.

“Is like a God sen’ him. Mi out in a mi yard one day and see this man drive up and asked me if a here mi live. When mi tell him yes, him sey a nuh true.”

Gordon said Dehaney asked to see inside his place of abode and was shocked by the condition. He immediately offered to help.

“I didn’t have anything in there except some piece of board that mi nail to the side and a piece of sponge on top for mi bed,” Gordon disclosed.

“Him live up to him promise, because him get the lumber fi build the house; and cement, sand, stone and building blocks to do the foundation; and we get to work to build what you see here,” he added.

Although not completed, Gordon was able to avoid the discomfort of living in the tiny shack and being exposed to the elements during Sunday’s severe weather conditions that affected the parish.

The forth of 11 children for his mother, Angela Phillips, with one being deceased, Gordon grew up with the family in a two-room house made from wooden slabs near the railway in Linstead.

The poverty was very severe, and with no family member to assist, his mother was unable to send her children to school, especially after his father went to prison when Gordon was only three years old and never got out until he was 21.

For Gordon, who has never set foot inside a classroom, life has been unkind to him. His father died months after he was released from prison, leaving his mother with the sole responsibility of caring for his female siblings.

“All the boy dem start hustling from early at the Linstead Market, and sometimes we do day’s work to survive,” He told The Gleaner.

“My mother couldn’t help the whole a we, so the five boy dem have fi leave mi mother with the girl them and go find somewey to live and hustle fi help them,” Gordon revealed.

He said he ended up at Vanity Fair, at the spot where he is currently located, and all he could afford to put together was the tiny shack to save himself from being out in the cold.

“I want better, but to tell you the truth, I can hardly scratch mi name. I know if mi could a read mi would a better off. I learn a little mason work, but if mi could a read mi would a go a HEART and study it,” Gordon told The Gleaner.

A CHANGED LIFE

According to him, the help he got from Delaney has completely changed his life, because now he is living in his own house and don’t have to worry about getting wet.

Meanwhile, Clement Dehaney said he is overwhelmed to know that he was able to do something for Gordon that has changed his life.

“There are some things left to be put in, like a window and a door. Also, I am in the process of giving him a bed, a couple chairs and a table,” Dehaney revealed.

The philanthropist, who is also an aspirant for the Jamaica Labour Party in the Linstead division for the upcoming parish council elections, said he was not politically driven to render the assistance to Gordon, who is not even in the division he will be representing.

“Passing him there every morning, I was curious about his condition, and when I happened to see inside the hut, I felt a deep sense of sadness to see where a human being was living,” said Dehaney, who pointed out that he has been doing charitable deeds for more than 10 years.

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