“I can’t wait to see my son again,” Noelina Prospere-Medor said from her bed at the Palms geriatric home, yesterday where she was taken by social workers on Friday.
Her son Sylvester Medor who recently returned to Guyana for the second time in two years in search of his mother had contacted the Ministry of Human Services from his home in London when she was found and asked it to take care of her until he could return and make more permanent arrangements for her.
When Stabroek News visited the woman at the Palms yesterday she seemed perkier than she had been at the Georgetown Hospital and was ready to chat although she said that her memory is not as sharp as before. One has to pay keen attention to understand what she is saying as her speech is a bit slurred but she has no problem repeating herself and her St Lucian accent is still evident in her speech. When told that her son is returning to see her in eight weeks time, Prospere-Medor remarked that she is “so happy that he is coming to see me.”
When asked if she recalls where she was staying before, Prospere-Medor said that she was living at James Street, Albouystown. When prompted about the small room at Craig, East Bank Demerara where she was found one day after her son left Guyana with no success in locating her; Prospere- Medor responds that she was living at James Street. She remembers Hubert Alexander though and said that she used to live with him. Alexander was the woman’s caretaker who took her to the Craig apartment where she was found, but he had told Stabroek News that he was in the Interior at the time when her son was looking for her and had instructed his estranged wife to lie about the octogenarian’s whereabouts.
Prospere-Medor recalled that she used to take care of him. “I prepared his meals…” she told Stabroek News. She also recalled living with someone called ‘Helena’ who she refers to as her niece.
Meanwhile a nurse at the Palms recalled that Prospere-Medor was at the institution sometime back. ”She used to walk and so then,” the woman recalled, remembering also that Noelina was a spritely and good-natured person. “She was brought here on Friday and hasn’t given us any problems,” the nurse told Stabroek News. And Noelina remembers her quite well. Holding the nurse’s hand she said “this is my good friend she takes good care of me.”
She remembers her son now too and kept saying “I want to see Sylvester again.”
Her advanced age has not dimmed her humour; she laughs heartily at a joke, and tells this reporter to come and see her again. In the meantime Sylvester Medor told Stabroek News that he will return to see his mother and make permanent arrangements for her to stay somewhere, but had to undergo knee surgery and will come within eight weeks.
He explained to Stabroek News the circumstances that surround the years-long estrangement; but said that he had been sending her money all the while.
The man said all he wants to do now is to take care of his mother in her “twilight year” and is not interested in any possessions she might have as the caretakers have alleged. (Melissa Charles)
