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Philomena Pilgrim is spending Christmas without a home
While many will be enjoying their pepper pot, sorrel and all the fancy treats in well decked out Christmas fashion; some people are finding it very hard to cope this holiday. In fact, for one woman, today’s menu may very well be rice and peas or whatever else she can find to “cook a pot.”
Philomena Bobb-Pilgrim and her children and grandchildren in front their home the morning of the fire.
Fifty-six-year-old Philomena Bobb-Pilgrim is still trying to come to grips with the reality of losing her home and all that she owned. The woman’s house was completely destroyed last Wednesday after her 29-year-old son decided to torch her two-storey, four-bedroom house.
Pilgrim said that she has no Christmas, not even a home to call her own. When Kaieteur News made contact with her yesterday, Pilgrim said that she was on Regent Street just walking and looking around. “I just walking and looking round, cause I ain’t got nothing to buy. I ain’t got no money, no Christmas nothing.”
Sobbing and trying to keep her composure, Pilgrim said that she now lives behind the Roraima Housing Scheme on West Bank Demerara, in a small place that her friend had given her permission to stay. Since the fire, she highlighted that friends and family have come to her aid; also receiving assistance from a private organization.
Guyana Relief Council, she said, donated some cooking utensils a small stove, some food items and a mattress. Her granddaughters, for whom the woman cared, had to be sent away to their mothers at their various homes. Her son, who lived downstairs, is now living at the Relief Council, while his girlfriend had to return to her parents’ home.
Pilgrim said her daughter who also lost items in the home, promised to bake her cake from her work place. Other persons offered to share their Christmas treats.
Pilgrim is however looking forward to a bright new year. The woman said she expects to start on the reconstruction of her home. So far she said her church has donated money for the purchase of blocks while neighbours assisted with the clearing of the land.
Her friend who gave the apartment has also offered to host a bingo to raise funds for her home. There will also be another fund raiser in the community to raise money for the house. Pilgrim said she wanted to thank everyone who assisted in whatever way and is humbled by the contribution of any other.
The family was able to save nothing. Five persons occupied the house at Lot 22 Samaroo Dam, Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara. Pilgrim and her two granddaughters lived upstairs while the woman’s son and his girlfriend stayed in the lower flat. Another son would stay with the woman when he was not in the interior.
Pilgrim said that her son is a drug user. On the day prior to the fire, she had a small exchange with her son about him constantly using her matches. According to her, the son, Rockwell Pilgrim, works nowhere and earns no pay. She said that the family cares for him, but she was adamant when she told her son that he should find a steady job instead of travelling to the interior and regularly returning empty handed.
Nothing happened that night, but the next morning, she said, her son who is sometimes delusional, was uttering “weird things”. Being in a hurry to reach her security job, she did not respond to him. Her son became irate but the woman said that she, instead, hurried her grandchildren out the house and headed to work.
Minutes later, Pilgrim said that a friend called her and told her that her home was engulfed in flames. The woman said that she immediately stopped the bus and returned to her home. “When I see the fire, my knees buckle,” Pilgrim lamented. The woman said that when she got there the top flat was gone and the fire was making its way to the bottom flat.
The suspected arsonist, Rockwell Pilgrim appeared at the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrates’ Court last week and was remanded to jail. The man was also slapped with assault charges since he had reportedly attacked the police with a knife when they tried to detain him after the fire. The matter will be called again next year.
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