She sits on the pavement in front of a popular downtown Georgetown mall, her hands working feverishly as she crochets. She does not look up from what she is doing even as pedestrians pass her up and down. Her focus is on the needle and the green thread as she artfully fashions an item.
I approach and stand quietly beside her but yet she does not raise her head; the fingers continue to work and her eyes remain fixed.
“What are you making?” I ask quietly.
After a few seconds, she pauses and looks up. “Is a top, you know. Them girls can wear it; it would look good on them,” she answers quietly.
“It looks like a bra,” I point out.
“Yes, is fuh like when you going to the creek and so. Or, you know, you can wear it and put like a shirt over it, but lef it open because these here really nice,” she says.
It is just after seven in the morning and she is sitting on some cardboard, a little basket next to her and her crochet thread in a black plastic bag. I ask why she is sitting on the pavement.
“I out hey to beg. Yeah I does beg, you know. But I have a house, is me grandmother house and I done clean it up and so. I want open a shop to sell. I is a businesswoman. But I need some money fuss so I can buy more thread and make more things. I gah get money to eat, you know so I does beg,” she answers.
“Look is all me stock them I lost. I had nuff things, you know. I use to live in Charlotte Street under a shed like and I had me things them deh and I would sell. But is thief me things get thief. I had a friend and she thief me things and is suh now I got to end up begging right now.”
I ask her if she lives alone in the house she mentioned and whether it has any amenities.
“Yes man, the house got light and water and I living downstairs. Upstairs I clean up, it have two rooms and is one fuh me brother and one fuh me sister. I had twin sisters but one dead and me ain’t know if my brother and next sister would come and live deh but I clean it up. All I want now is a lil money to open the shop,” she says.
Even as she speaks, her fingers continue to work the crochet thread and right before my eyes the top is being completed, beautifully and neatly. I ask how long she has been crocheting.
“It is a while now, you know. I learn this in prison. Is in prison I learn this. And you know wha this thing do for me? It does calm me soul and I glad I learn it. I ain’t glad I went to prison but I glad I learn to do this. It does make meh inside feel so good and then when I look at what I making, you know, it does make me feel good, yeah,” she says.
“So why did you go to prison?” I ask her.
“I went to prison for simple larceny, yeah that is what I went for,” she responds.
I ask what she stole.
“I steal from me mother in law. I went in she house and thief a TV and something else. I don’t know wha possess me to break in the house and thief dem stuff but a do it and I just went and plead guilty and I spend bout one year in prison. And is there I learnt to knit like this so it wasn’t all waste, I learn something,” she says.
“How many children you have?” I ask as from her previous answer it was obvious that she had offspring.
“I gat two sons; one is 13 and the next one is bout 20. Dem ain’t really grow with me, dem does live them dem father,” she says.
“Do you see them?” I ask.
“Yeah I does see them one and two times, mostly the lil one. The big one he does come around sometimes and he does give me like a $2,000 and so but is the lil one I does see. And if you see how he good looking, you know. The lil one he very good looking. I just deh, you know. Dem alright and I just gaffo try fuh me. As long as I gat life I have to try and live.
“Look is nuff things happen to me in this life, but you know I still living. People does look at me and say how I does smoke marijuana and do cocaine but me don’t do none a duh.
“Is nah one time I went to jail. I use to be knitting on Regent Street and a day a man pass and feel up me bubby [breast] just like duh. You know is just like duh he pass and do it and I run behind he and stab he. And the police get involve and nobody ain’t listening to me because I telling them wah this man do. But no is me get charge and them sentence me to jail so I went to jail again. And is the knitting help to calm me. I just sit down and calm meself down until is was to come out.”
She preempts me as I am about to ask if she told the magistrate about the sexual assault. “When I went before the magistrate is me alone the police charge fuh stabbing this man and I is stab the man. Dem police ain’t listen to me I don’t know wha the man tell them but I just tell de magistrate I stab the man and me ain’t worry talk about how he grab me bubby just like duh…,” she says.
“And I went to jail a third time. This time me been fetching thing; was me and me child father and another man.”
“What were you fetching?” I ask.
“We been fetching ganja, you know. And me, I tek deh rap. Me child father and the next man get bail… them bail me later because I get charge, and I went to jail fuh a while and den I come out. The case must be continuing but I don’t go to Berbice. Was in Berbice this thing happen, we been going to Suriname.
“So, right now I just trying to get things going, if I get to open the shop, things guh be good for me. I need some money dah is why I out here begging, you know.
“… I get me lil basket here and I on the pavement. Is nah every time you does feel like saying please fuh a twenty dollar or something. If they want they could drop something or they can even ask me to knit something and pay. I guh start asking just now but a deh hay focusing on finishing off this thing… ”
I cannot vouch for anything this sister told me, but it was obvious that she has had a rough life and may be living on the streets. I found our conversation interesting, especially with her sharing that crocheting calms her soul because there are many people searching for something to calm their souls. This sister may be facing many struggles in her life but she has found something to calm her soul. I placed a contribution in her basket before saying goodbye. She did not lift her head. She continued to crochet. I left her sitting in front of the mall and an hour later when I passed again, she was still there. She disappeared when the café she was sitting in front opened for business. She needs help, but, at least according to her, she has found something to calm her soul.
