Pansy Simpson trying to cope with death of breadwinner

This is the third of a four-part series featuring families that are yet to meet the back-to-school requirements for their children.

Pansy Simpson of Tommy King, Rock River in Clarendon, is at her wit’s end trying to manage the additional expenses brought on following the death of her partner in March of this year.

The mother of three children, two still in high school – one attending Glenmuir High and the other Edwin Allen High – is yet to have all their requirements met as the days wind down to the reopening of school on Monday.

Sharing her readiness for the school year, she said she is “about 70 per cent”. For her daughter at Glenmuir, she hasn’t started purchasing her schoolbooks as yet, and for the one attending Edwin Allen, her main concern surrounds the everyday going to school, now that she is facing the expenses alone.

Simpson said she also has the added pressure of trying to keep the children from sinking into depression as one of her daughters admitted that she was “stressed” as she tried to cope with the death of her father.

She is now inviting those who are familiar with the family to call and talk to her children to encourage them.

Commenting on her daughters’ mental readiness for school, Simpson said they both indicate that they will pull through to focus on their schoolwork despite the challenges.

Looking ahead, Simpson said that she has no idea how she will manage with bus fare and lunch money for the girls because before he died, their father was the one who bore most of the financial burden, and she only assisted with the little she earned from her day’s work.

“I do day’s work two or three times a week. The challeng for me now will be to send them to school regularly like before. I give them $5,000 each for the week, which would include bus fare and lunch money. I don’t see myself coming up with $10,000 each week, although I am trying my best,” she shared as the tears came to her eyes at the thought of having to stop them from school.

Simpson also shared that she knows that the $5,000 for the week is not enough as half of it is for taxi fare, leaving them $500 daily for lunch money and breaks.

“They have to sit through breaks, and if they buy lunch, they cannot even buy a bottle of water. Some days they don’t eat a proper lunch,” Simpson said.

She said she has to focus on assisting her children because if she had taken her mind off of that, she would have crumbled a long time ago.

Alphanso McLeod of the Rock River Foundation, for whom Simpson works every other Saturday, said he is aware of her situation and tries his best to assist her as well as the many other children the foundation looks out for. He agreed that the passing of her husband has really left her in a bind.

To assist the family, call Pansy Simpson at 876-4461413

cecelia.livingston@gleanerjm.com