Disabled man operates taxi

Despite having lost the use of his legs due to a bullet wound to the spine 10 years ago, Alden Myers still performs his duties as a taxi operator on a daily basis, driving an automatic-transmission car with the help of a stick.

Alden has been a taxi driver since 1994 and bought his first car in 2000. Two years later, it was stolen in the incident which left him a paraplegic.

"Mi remember it like yesterday. The passenger hol mi by di neck, push the gun at mi head an tell the other passenger dem fi run. Mi try get way but the shot buss. Only good ting is, after me hear it me neva dead, so it somehow manage fi miss mi head," Myers said.

Myers was shot in the back and left along Marcus Garvey Drive to die. Fortunately, a passer-by carried him to the Kingston Public Hospital, where he was admitted for a month. He was then moved to the Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre a month after.

Not only did Myers no longer have feeling in his legs; on further inspection, two of his toes on each foot had to be amputated because they were infected. "The doctor look pon me an say, 'You have infection', so me say, 'Is wha, AIDS?'," Myers recalled.

tremendous relief

While in the centre, Alden watched in amasement as another patient, a double amputee, drove a car outside. "When Indian come back, me say to him, 'A how you a drive?' Den Indian say, 'A piece a stick mi use'," he said. This was a tremendous relief, as Myers was suffering from depression, thinking he could no longer indulge in his passion for driving.

After rehabilitation, Myers practised the stick-driving technique, and within two years had mastered it. "Mi coulda drive again and trust me, it feel good," Myers said. "I'm better than many people who have two foot weh a drive, crash an kill off people. I been doing this eight years; eight years now with none of mi two foot dem can move, an mi neva even kill a goat."

Ironically, three years after Myers started driving again another passenger tried to kill him but, again showing the will to live, he escaped.

"I'm not afraid of dying. The life I'm living I wouldn't even wish it on my greatest enemy, but regardless, mi gi Jah thanks cause mi still can drive, and mi hav mi pickney dem a live fah. Not even police have a problem with me an my stick," Myers said.