By WANDEKA GAYLE, Staff ReporterESCAPING THEIR BURNING Johnson Pen, St. Catherine home in February was a close call for 33-year-old Yvonne Simms and her five-year-old daughter Shaniece Huggins. However, almost a month since the incident, both mother and daughter have been forced to flee to western Jamaica to escape constant threats on their lives.
"Di man dat burn it (house) down, 'im go to Gordon Pen asking fah me, den him go to Ebony Vale asking fah mi," Simms told THE STAR via cell phone. She insists that had she stayed any longer in Spanish Town, she would have been killed.
Simms insists that the fire was started by relatives of 27-year-old Orlando Daccas, who wanted to avenge his death. She had told THE STAR that her cousin, who owned the three-bedroom-house that was torched, had had an altercation between Daccas months before his murder. She said relatives thought her cousin had a hand in Daccas' murder.
Simms had awakened in the wee hours of the morning to the sound of a window being smashed and the pungent smell of gasoline. Then the sounds of gunshots could be heard in the community. When the fire brigade got there, they were unable to salvage anything from the flames.
Feeling safe
Several weeks later, Simms is still shaken by the incident and has been hopscotching from one friend's home to the other, never feeling safe.
"Mi get a call from somebody in di community an' dem tell mi fi stay clear from him," she said, her voice shaking.
She added that she had made reports to the Spanish Town Police about the impending danger but the alleged attacker has not yet been apprehended.
She has found a temporary haven in the western part of the island for the past two weeks, however she explained to THE STAR that she has to be constantly on the move. She added that she has had to rely on friends, since her relatives are unable to aid her.
"I feel sometime like a woulda tek mi owna life," she said, her voice breaking. "None of my sisters in a position fi help me, one have seven children and one have eight."
She laments her present situation, stating that not only has she lost her home and her business but she also lost her independence. "Yuh si di Monday before di fire, mi withdraw all di money from di bank. Mi did have $35,000 fi stock up di shop," she said. "Den di fire tek wey $60,000 worth of mi goods, clothes, slippers."
She told THE STAR that the Red Cross had donated six pounds of rice and cornmeal but she wonders where she will find money to buy Shaniece's school uniforms, shoes, pay school fees, or even to restart her business as they had only escaped with the clothes on their backs, a stove and a gas cylinder.
