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The story of three young orphans
By Yannason Duncan
“If I was the one that was deceased, I am convinced that my sister would have taken care of my children just the same.” These were the confident words of a still emotional Joylin Marks who, by choice, today, has sole guardianship of orphans Marlon, Travis and Delvin Marks of Queenstown village, Essequibo Coast.
After losing her youngest sister, Simone, almost six years ago, Joylin was entrusted with the sudden responsibility of taking care of and being a mother to her nephews, a gigantic responsibility she said she could not have walked away from.
Delvin was only three months old, and Marlon the eldest of the three brothers was nine, when their mother died suddenly.
Being the eldest, Marlon suffered the most, emotionally, after his mother’s death. He isolated himself and sometimes abstained from food.
Joylin Marks said that her mother, Barbara, a vendor, soon after her daughter’s death, took care of these boys. “My mother loved her grandchildren and did the most she could have done in shouldering the responsibility of fending for them.”
If it took selling mangoes and making craft just to incur a few dollars that would generate an income, Barbara did it without complaining, Joylin said. Her mother’s old age pension along with the assistance that the Muslim organization meted out to them also saw them through.
Today one legacy that these orphans still have of their deceased grandmother is their Muslim faith which they have adopted and which they practise.
Joylin, a self-employed mother of three, said that she took over the boys three years ago, after her mother’s death, and although it was the most difficult decision for her to make at the time, she said that she did it out of love for her dead sister.
The love that she extended to her nephews is no less than what she has for her own children. “Even though my nephews are not blood-related to me I took them in as one of my own, without any intention of any future guarantees,” Joylin’s husband, Conrad said.
“Myself and wife could not have left these boys unattended in a dilapidated house after their grandmother’s death. It was only we who were willing to accommodate them,” he continued.
Marlon, Travis and Delvin are all students of the Al Mahaniah Muslim School in Anna Regina. Marlon is a fast learner.
His aunt says his future ambition is to become a doctor, a prestigious career choice which she would want to see become a reality. “My only hope is to see these boys obtain a job of their choice after they would have completed school.
For this very reason I place so much emphasis in ensuring and keeping them in line, away from trouble.
“Few friends and away from the road is a disciplinary strategy I often impose upon these boys.”
Conrad, a plumber by profession, says that boys will be boys, but whenever they fall short he finds it necessary to impose firm discipline.
On an average day, Joylin says that she would get up early and prepare the children’s meals. Making sure that all three are afforded passage to and from school is most challenging for her and her husband, she says.
“Although having to take care of three young boys in this most difficult time, I have no other alternative than to do my best .After all they are not strangers and becoming orphans was not any of their fault.”
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