BY KAVELLE ANGLIN-CHRISTIE, Staff Reporter
The house where the 13 family members live in Old Harbour Glades, St. Catherine - KAVELLE CHRISTIE
FOUR CHILDREN ARE now in desperate need of help after their mother died during childbirth earlier this year.
Their mother, Annette Mitchell, 29, went into the hospital to deliver her baby. She, however, developed complications because of a goitre she had, and died. The doctors were able to save the baby.
The children she left behind are: Chevelle Fray, 11, Camille Fray, 9, Jordan Fray, 7, and Joshua Fray, two months old. Added to the mourning of the loss of their mother, the children also have another problem - their life is becoming quite desperate.
They now have to share a one bedroom shack with two beds in Old Harbour Glades, St. Catherine, with their grandmother, two aunts and six other children.
Their sorrow does not end there however, as Beryl Henry, the grandmother, said that although she was not working before her daughter's death, she then had a source of income - a fowl coop. This no longer exists as she used up all her resources to bury her daughter .
An empty fowl coop is now testament of Henry's plight.
"I used to do a little farming, but things get a little stiff, because I couldn't get to tend to it. I would want to plough the land, but to do that by hand is impossible, and to buy machinery is money that we don't have," she said.
A LOT OF STRESS
Henry spoke of her daughter's death. "She had goitre and then she got pregnant. The doctor said the goitre and the pregnancy placed pressure on the heart. She started to get shortness of breath, plus she had a bad kidney, and the child did turn crossways, so it was a lot of stress," she said.
"She just went in to have a baby and we expected her to come back. We never expect this," she said, now crying.
"Even she," said Henry, pointing to Camille, "when she hear, she cry so hard until she start to clap."
Henry said they had been unable to buy clothes for the children to attend the funeral. "I spent all my savings on the funeral, plus a borrow $18,000 from one person, $1,000 something from another ... It was either that or she couldn't bury. I can't take anymore," she said.
One of the children's aunts, Sophia Mitchell, 24, says that after the death of her sister, she moved to the house to help their mother with the children.
"We can't manage anymore. I don't work and the baby and the children need so many things," she said.
Mitchell said that Chevelle is now getting ready to sit the GSAT examinations but they do not have the money to buy the books that she needs at school.
One of the few persons who now helps them is a neighbour. "Is only if Miss Sheryl pass by and give them some money or when she go town she buy a pair of slippers," Sophia said.
Those willing to assist the family can contact Sophia Mitchell at 870-3063.
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