A caregiver’s cry!
Having met up on harsh times, Yvonne Young, the caregiver for her family, is crying for help.
The 68-year-old retired administrative worker has been unable to pay her rent in the past few months. Racking up a bill of $92,000, Young is hopeful that “somebody will help me”.
“I am penniless. Everything I have has depleted and where I live they are about to put me out on the road,” Young said in tears last Thursday.
“When I was 21 I got a job at the Gleaner on December 3, 1970 as a copy typist. I stayed there for several years and 1979 I was made redundant. They took me back the same year… [this time] I was there until 2004. When I was 55, I was made redundant,” she added.
While working, she cared for her mentally ill brother — a former welder who was injured on the job — and her paralysed grandmother.
The two have since died, but Young’s commitment to them saw her foregoing numerous opportunities to emigrate “when it was easier”.
“Now at 68 I have nothing. I have nobody and I have nothing,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I didn’t have any kids because the doctor said I had fibroids, then with my brother’s situation and grandmother I didn’t think of having a child because everything was just about them.”
Today she fears she is on the verge of being kicked out of the place she has called home for over two decades.
“I am living there 21 years and it is from it was renting for $5,000 a month until it reach to $20,000 a month now. And I cannot say that it is unreasonable because it is a half side and if I leave, the lady can get double for it,” she told the Jamaica Observer.
“She is away now and she is coming back the end of this month and me know she going to put me out; me just feel she going put out me things,” she continued through her tears. “I don’t think anybody owe me anything but I need help. I’m in arrears for up to June this year it was $92,000.
“The place worth it because she upgrade it and it look good, so is not like she is dishonest, is just that I can’t afford it anymore. I have been looking around for somewhere else, thinking maybe me can small up myself, get rid of some stuff, but a one room is for about that amount these days. I don’t know where else to turn,” Young said.
“If I get rid of the arrears I can see myself out because I used to do babysitting and I do embroidered pillowcases and I get orders for them, and so is just the arrears that is really bothering me. This is something that I do and they love them to dress up your bed. I do art, so anything you want on your pillow case I draw it on it and I sew it. Is just the arrears that is killing me. Just to get a clean slate and then I will see my way.”
She said she has sought help from the Poor Relief arm of Government but only received $30,000 to which she added $10,000 and gave to her landlady.
Young noted that though she received a lump sum after her position was made redundant, the money has depleted as she has been out of work since June 2016. Since working at the Gleaner, Young has done stints as an administrative secretary at the Ministry of Finance, the Financial Investigation Division, the Electoral Office and the tax offices in Constant Spring and downtown Kingston. But she was never hired on staff, and instead filled the position of staff members on leave.
“I didn’t know that after so many years working at a place they would make [position] me redundant, and I wasn’t a troublemaker or anything,” she said as she wept.
The $7,000 she receives bi-weekly from her contributions to National Insurance Scheme (NIS) is just enough to cover her utility bills.
“The $14,000 from NIS pays my light bill, the water and I have cable. I pay $1,700 for cable because I share with my neighbour. So at the end of the month all I get is $4,000 and you talking about food, rent,” she noted. “I tried saving a little. Like last month I saved and gave her $20,000, but then this month come and is another $20,000 again. I didn’t pay that and I don’t know where else to go or what to do.
“I pay $3,000 for light, so the light is not high because I plug out my stuff I pay $2,000 for water, that’s $5,000, and the cable is $1,700, which I share with my neighbour — so it can’t pay any rent. And even when I try and put down money and say I won’t touch that it, can’t save enough,” Young said. “The arrears are just on my back.”
As if she has not been through enough, she was last week robbed of her cellphone.
“I went to the wholesale to buy some things but when I went home my phone was gone,” she related. “On top of everything else is like my whole world is closing in on me.”
She said she is also in need of dentures, as hers broke recently and her glasses need changing.
“Sometimes I feel like drinking some things because I can’t deal with it any more. I know I believe in God, I know He will take care of me but sometimes I feel God has turned his back on me. I made the sacrifices for my family because when I was in my 30s I could go easily but I didn’t go, I say I not leaving them.
“I don’t regret doing what I did for them because I think I would do it again because of the person I am, but because of the situation that I am in now I kind of feel sorry for myself,” Young said as her voice broke. “I just feel sorry for myself that I reach this stage and I feel so helpless and I don’t know where to turn.”