Mom of six only wanted Bible after home burned down

WESTERN BUREAU:

When fire destroyed the modest two-bedroom board house she struggled for years to build, single mother Natalie Watson lost everything – her beds, clothes, furniture, and the roof she had already rebuilt after a hurricane.

However, in the hours after the blaze, which left her homeless in Bamboo Old Pen, Hanover, the first thing Watson asked for was a Bible.

“I didn’t think about the furniture or anything that burn up,” Watson told The Gleaner. “All that come to my mind was that my Bible burn. I say, ‘God, I don’t want to miss my lesson’.”

Watson, a bottle sorter at D&G in Reading, St James, said she was at work last Thursday morning when her eldest son arrived with the devastating news that her small plywood home had been completely destroyed by fire.

“He touch me on the shoulder and say, ‘Mommy, be strong,’” she recalled. “Then he tell me the house burn right out.”

The mother of six said she had left home earlier that morning after praying with her two children who live with her, a 14-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl.

“For three days before the fire I just find myself praising God,” Watson said. “Every morning we pray – Psalms 23, Psalms 35 and Psalms 91 – before we leave the house.”

LATEST HARDSHIP

Watson insists she had not cooked in the house for weeks and relied only on a solar-powered light system for illumination.

“I didn’t cook for two weeks,” she explained. “And I never had electricity – only a solar light with a remote.”

Firefighters later told her they found no evidence of electrical wiring in the structure.

The blaze was the latest hardship for Watson, whose home had already been badly damaged during a hurricane. She had painstakingly rebuilt sections of the structure herself, often working with limited resources.

But when she remembers the pain she experienced a mere four months ago, Watson said she lives by faith, and gave an insight into what happened after she was thrown out of her neighbour’s house during the storm.

“A neighbour of ours invited us to shelter in an unfinished building they had, but when we got there [they] told us there were too many of us.”

With nowhere else to go, the single mother stepped back into the raging hurricane.

She was forced to return to her small board house, which she watched the hurricane winds tear through.

“I wrapped a damp blanket around a one-month-old baby who was with us, bent my body over the child and braced myself beneath sheets of loose zinc.”

Watson said she and her family eventually squeezed beneath part of her damaged house where only a few pieces of zinc remained. Water covered the floor, and the wind threatened to rip away what little protection they had left.

It was only one of many trials the Hanover woman would endure.

“When the rain fall, we would flood right out,” she said. “Sometimes the bed wet and we have to push it in a corner or put pan to catch the water.”

RESOLUTE IN CONVICTION

Despite the setbacks, Watson remains resolute in her conviction.

“Losing my Bible was the thing that frightened me the most,” she said. “Being close to God is what comfort me.”

Watson said she immediately contacted her pastor after the fire.

“I call him and say, ‘Pastor, I don’t want to bother you, but I would appreciate if I could get a Bible.’”

The single mother is now staying temporarily in a small structure her son hastily made available for her and her younger children after the blaze.

The building has no doors or windows, only curtains and zinc sheets for protection.

Still, Watson said she is determined not to lose hope.

“God say, ‘Stand still and know that I am God’,” she said. “All things are possible through Christ.”

So far, assistance has come mainly from her church community. Her pastor and a local justice of the peace have provided school supplies, food and clothing for her children.

Watson said her member of parliament, Andrea Purkiss, has also visited the site and provided a bed and groceries.

However, she still faces the daunting task of rebuilding her home from scratch.

“If I get back my house that would be my greatest joy,” she said quietly. “Everything else can come after.”

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com