Gilbert gets new lease on life
Published:Saturday | January 14, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Horace Fisher, Gleaner Writer
CHAPELTON, Clarendon:
THE QUICK thinking of a nurse may have saved the life of Chapelton's most famous citizen, Lyscene 'Bush Tea' Gilbert, who fell into a coma some 15 years ago.
According to the 58-year-old former bus conductor who has been living in Chapelton for the last 40 years, while working on the bus one day, a nurse observed that he was not feeling well and suggested that he go to the hospital.
"So I went over to the Spanish Town Hospital same time, but as me reach the hospital, me just knock out and fell into a coma," said Gilbert, who got the name 'Bush Tea' because of his love of tea.
"I awoke from the coma after a couple of days and was diagnosed with diabetes and spent five months in the Spanish Town Hospital," he said, adding that his right leg was amputated. The self-proclaimed all-rounder described the ordeal as a frightening, near-death experience.
"Boy, it's a good thing me listen to the nurse and go over the hospital, or me don't know what would have happened to me. Me could be a dead man now, but a so it go. God don't ready fi me yet," said Gilbert.
"Me all right now, though. See me get a new foot yah, and it is the same little pickney them, who me used to take care of when me used to deh pon the bus buy me it. Them come together and pay the $100,000 for it and give me," said Gilbert, proudly pointing to his new leg.
He related to The Gleaner that he was the father of seven children. He is estranged from his common-law wife and survives by running various errands for persons in the town.
"Me do all kinds of things to survive. Sometimes a person come to lodge money in the bank, but they are in a hurry, so me just lodge the money for them and them give me a thing just like that, but generally, people look out for me all the time," added Gilbert.
A jovial Gilbert, who was sitting close to the National Commercial Bank's Chapelton's branch, surrounded by a number of friends, said Chapelton was a more vibrant town 10 years ago, with more businesses operating in the town.
"Most of the businesses in Chapelton are family businesses, so when the parents retire, the younger generation don't carry on the business, so some of them close down now," explained Gilbert.