It’s Valentine’s Day and many of them are dressed in red and white outfits in observance of the special day.

Some come bearing gifts. There are a few smiles but the worry and anxiety is evident in their eyes. Still, these women – some in the company of their children and other family members – take their seats in the waiting area.

These women are the babymothers, wives and girlfriends of men currently serving sentences for various crimes at the maximum-security Tower Street Adult Correctional facility in Kingston.

For these women the now familiar journey from their inner city homes and from communities elsewhere in Jamaica to visit the fathers of their children provides an exhilarating taste of family bonding they have been missing in their daily lives.

Moreover, life on the outside has not been the same for the majority of mothers, particularly those with small children. They are finding it difficult to provide for the children, whose fathers were the sole breadwinners for the family prior to their imprisonment.

“It hard. (It) hard to send them to school because I have no regular help for them. Mi family help me out sometimes, but them can hardly find money fi themself, much less,” explained 36-year-old Zola Williams from Maxfield Park. She was visiting her children’s father currently serving a four-year sentence. “Mi have to be hustling downtown now fi make money because I used to have him to depend on him to help provide food and lunch money. So I start sell like scotch brite and any other little things fi make money nowadays. Bwoy, it rough,” she said.

Similarly, while other women were delighting in the company of their loved ones at home last Thursday, Sharon Davis, 26, was braving the harsh mid-morning sun to visit the father of her children at the Tower Street facility. Like Williams, she too, is finding it difficult to provide for her children since their father’s incarceration.

“My family pitches in to help me with the children because I can hardly afford the expenses,” said Davis, who moved from Tivoli to work in Portland as a part-time receptionist. Her two children, who are occasionally given financial assistance by other relatives, are now two and five years old. Their father is currently serving a six-year sentence.

Maxine Williams, 32, from Golden Spring, shared a similar story of struggle and hardship.

“It’s very hard to take care of the children because I used to depend on the money every week from him (her common law husband) to buy groceries and send them to school.” The mother of two boys explained that their father used to pick coffee in St Thomas and “even though it never pay much, it used to help out”.

Mi miss him a lot,” she added.

Meanwhile, among the group of mothers and girlfriends was Lurline Robinson from Lewis Store in St Mary, who told the Sunday Observer that ever since her brother was incarcerated, the mother of his children abandoned them, leaving her and their grandmother to take care of them.