‘Me work so hard’: Westmoreland mother of five heartbroken after Hurricane Melissa destroys dream home

A mother of five children from Fullerton Lane in Shrewsbury, Westmoreland, says she does not have the heart to go back and look at her home, which was taken away by Hurricane Melissa two days after it was completed, because it is just too painful.

Judith Jarrett says poured her all into her two-bedroom house, saving for years from her weekly pay.

“I’m a struggling mom. I’m the one that maintains them - school, food, and everything. It’s just this baby alone the father helps out sometimes,” said the 37-year-old woman, noting that she has five kids depending on her.

She said that she worked through her pregnancy to finish her beloved house.

“I work straight till eight months, build my house, piece my house, finish my house two days before the storm,” she said.

“[Storm] come, blow down everything. I don’t save anything at all.”

When the hurricane struck, Jarrett said she tried to stay put.

“I said to myself, you know, this storm is going to be dangerous. But I have nowhere to go. My family them were sheltered too. So I stayed.”

Then, she said, “The whole house start jump.”

The first thing that went was her shop roof, but her intuition told her that she couldn't wait for a second warning to gather her kids and leave.

“I said ‘no, I can’t stay’. So I pack my baby papers, everything, birth papers and stuff, and sit with my little suitcase.”

Her 14-year-old son, she said, begged her to leave.

“He said, ‘Mommy, come on, we have to go.’ So we run next door. Even that house start leak bad. We had to be stuck in the bathroom... about 20 people in one small bathroom. The baby just get her six weeks shot, and she wet up same way. Everybody wet up.”

For two nights, Jarrett said they huddled in the leaking bathroom, soaked and scared.

“Every time rain fall, same thing over and over. We wet up,” she said.

“So my mother decide [that] me can’t stay there. She bring me over here [ hurricane shelter].”

Now, she’s been staying at the hurricane shelter at Petersfield High School, but she says life there is far from comfortable.

“Me not really comfortable here. Me have me baby, and me don’t feel the place safe. People walk outside and push them hand through the window. Me can’t sleep good.”

Since the storm, she says she hasn’t had the heart to go back to her house.

“Me just no want see it,” she said.

“It hurt me too much, because me work so hard. Me save every dollar. Me get $15,000, $16,000 a week, and save it. Me used to buy me board for $6,000, one by one, until them raise the price. Me neighbour keep the money for me till me buy the rest.”

Everything she owned is gone.

“Three TV mash up. Me bed wet up,” she said.

“Me children, 17, 14, 8, 6, and this baby, no help, no support.”

She paused for a long moment before telling The Gleaner what she desperately wished for.

“Me just want back something small, so me can have me kids them back home. Me not asking for nothing big. Me just want somewhere safe.”

As she spoke, she held her bundle of joy to her bosom, but her face displayed all that she truly felt.

Nonetheless, her faith appeared to be stronger than her plight, as she told The Gleaner, “God don’t give me more than me can bear,” she said.

“Me just want to start over.”

- Mickalia Kington

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