(Jamaica Star) James Smith, 75, started losing his sight in 2010. Three years later, his sight was drastically diminished as he stopped seeing clear images. Now, he only sees blurs and shadows.
Smith, who lives in Kent Village near Bog Walk, St Catherine, wished he was surrounded by family when such a major change started to take effect. But instead, he was all alone.
“I grow with my father and my mother. They both passed off. It wasn’t me alone. I have two brothers, but they didn’t live with us and I am the oldest. But I ended up here alone. I live here alone and my brothers live in here same way, but over the other side. Sometimes them talk to me, but them not too all right upstairs,” Smith told THE STAR.
“Me sight gone man, but I glimpse certain things,” he said, before correctly guessing the colour of the shirt the reporter was wearing. “You are in a white shirt and your mask have on a red dash on it.” Smith said, however, that he cannot recognise faces.
I CANT WORK NOW
“In 2010, me coulda still see clearly and work and do all kinds of things. But since 2013, the sight get weaker and weaker. I used to do a trade … sandpapering and polishing. I could even weed up yard and climb tree and pick things for people. I used to even wash out hog pen, but I can’t do any of that now,” he said.
Most days, he benefits from the generosity of his neighbours, who continue to go the extra mile for him.
“I have been managing with COVID because me nuh too leave. I don’t have no sickness, but sometimes my shoulder give me a little pain and my hands. Sometimes my neighbours come and give me some food and sometimes I cook inside here,” he said.
Despite not being able to rely completely on his sight, he still tries to remain active and keep his environs clean.
“I still manage to clean up my yard. Me sit down and take my cutlass and push underneath the weed dem and pull them out. It’s me alone here every day and I never get lonely. Me all right. When me ready, me walk go out a di front and siddung pon the main.”
His biggest concern is that he is not able to work, therefore, he is unable to improve the conditions of his home, a one-room board structure.
“The only thing is that this house trouble me. It mash dung. It a leak, so when rain fall me ina problem, me afi set bucket. A bare water,” he said wearily.
