A mother’s pain of living beyond her children…
By Andrew Carmichael
Mother’s Day is a time when mothers are honored by their children and others, but what happens if those children were no more – migrated or even passed away?
This is the reality of some mothers who have been blessed with long life.
Rosalyn Remollo of Orealla is 75-years-old. She lives with her 87-year-old husband Ronald and they survive on their pension. The couple had four children who have all passed away.
“Things are hard. We get old now and can’t go out,” she says.
With no children to support her in her old age, the mother still farms to this day planting cassava and watermelons.
“Long me a plant me son dem dead out. Four of dem dead out, every year dem ah dead, last year one dead too,” she tells me.
She lives on the top of a hill and mobility is an issue. She is unable to climb down the hell to get to the Health Centre and with the passing of her children the it is even more difficult to access basic services without help.
However, she is pushing through and living by her motto “once a mother, always a mother.”
Her daily routine includes getting wood and chopping it with an axe so that she can fuel her fireside to prepare meals for her elderly husband.
Given her circumstances, many may ask whether it is a blessing to be able to outlive your children.
Similar circumstances affect Juliet Joseph 71, of that same community. She however is a widow having lost both her first and second husband.
She lives with her teenaged granddaughter.
