Freak accident destroys house in Linden…Mother turns to Guyana’s interior to provide for children

Aug 28, 2011 News

School will be reopened little over a week from now and both parents and children are in a frenzy- shopping, getting new uniforms and all the other paraphernalia necessary for the beginning of a new school year.
For lots of children this is an exciting time, and most of them cannot wait for the day to come to show off all their brand new accoutrements.

Maureen with Deon and Marcus

These children take all this for granted- the fact that their parents’ possess the wherewithal to equip them for school- but there are other children- too many of them, who are still wondering where that new backpack (haversack) and shoes /boots are coming from.
And some parents try their utmost to fulfill these needs, sometimes even seeking employment far away from home to do that.
Forty-six-year old Maureen Stoll of Silvertown Linden is a single parent of four children, who recently made the tough decision to leave her family and seek employment in the interior as a cook, to ensure that her two younger children are equipped for school.
Maureen was widowed 12 years ago, and recently lost her home during a freak storm that sent two trees crashing down on the kitchen of the humble wooden abode at Rainbow City. She subsequently resigned from her job, as she said she couldn’t cope with the stress and a management that did not empathize with her situation, or render any form of assistance.
“I wasn’t looking for money, because I know the firm is a small one, but at least management could have shown some understanding and given me some kind of moral support-but instead I was treated as if nothing had happened.”
She was forced to seek shelter at her mother in Silvertown, but had to leave most of her possessions at her old house in Rainbow City.

Marcus enjoys a snack

“I couldn’t bring those things here, because this house can’t hold them- is 13 of us living here- and we can’t stay at the house in Rainbow City, because it leaning at a precarious angle and could fall at any time.”
Maureen’s 19-year old son Kevon sleeps at the house to safeguard the family’s belongings. Kevon was at home cooking when the trees crashed on their kitchen. He miraculously escaped unscathed.
However, although Maureen was able to secure shelter for herself and children, her chief worry was how she was going to equip the younger two, Dionne and Marcus for the new school term.
At the time of this interview, Maureen was still in Linden at her mother’s house. Seven year old Marcus her youngest, was constantly cuddling up to her.
He was hungry, but his mother couldn’t buy him a snack, because the money she had, was just enough to buy ‘stuff’ for lunch.
“Right now is one meal a day we eating, because I can’t afford more, and is me big son that does give me money out of the little he working for- but I does feel bad because he young and he got to do things for heself, plus he must get he lil girlfriend that he gon want to do things for. I got to find something to do”.
At the time, Maureen could not have envisioned that that ‘something’ would take her far away from her children.
Thirteen-year old Deon is very sad. “I wish my mother didn’t have to go, I really miss her, and now I have to cook and wash and everything. I don’t know what will happen when school reopens.”
Marcus, at seven, is his mother’s pride and joy, but circumstances forced her to leave him to seek employment. He would also miss his mother and wished she didn’t have to go.
“I’m proud of all of my children, because thank God they don’t give me problems, but my mother tells me that Marcus is my “gift” and that I should take special care of him. He’s a really bright child- excels in class all the time, but now I don’t even know how I gon send him to school. Where we used to live is not far from his school, so he used to walk- now he has to cross the river, then catch a bus, so is two fares I got to find-boat fare and bus fare.”

Maureen’s economic woes led her to make a decision that was really hard for her- leaving her children to go to a place where they presently can’t even contact her by telephone.
She left her children about a week for the interior where she has obtained another job as a cook.
“I’m so worried about her. Right now I don’t know what’s going on because where she is there are no signals,” her mother Mabel Martin confessed.
Mabel is seventy-nine years old and not in the best of health, so presently her granddaughter Deon has become Marcus’s “mother”.
Mabel and the rest of the family is also concerned that Maureen might ‘catch malaria’ but Maureen’s major concern right now is earning money to equip her children for school, and rebuilding her old home in Rainbow City.
She is pleading with the Regional authorities or anyone with the resources to do so, to assist her to rebuild her home, because while she says that she would be eternally grateful to her mother for sheltering her, she acknowledges that 13 people living in a three-bedroom house is fraught with problems. (Enid Joaquin)