Alone in Ballimony, Brother Henry hopeful police son will visit one day

Leford Samuel Henry, a lanky, old farmer in the hills of Ballimony, a small, remote district in the Garden Parish, is excited to meet people – and understandably so.

He is warm, well-spoken and full of life, which one of his firm handshakes corroborates.

On seeing an unfamiliar vehicle pull up to his fence on Christmas Eve, on a course that is not always conducive to driving, especially under wet conditions, he paused from his handwashing to see who it may have been.

For a minute, it appeared as if Henry was looking for someone special to visit.

“I am personally glad to see you. Anybody, everybody, I just glad to have you coming, knowing that you are not from Lincoln (where he was born), you know. It’s further than that you coming from to here,” Henry said as he greeted the Gleaner team.

He gave his year of birth as 1938, which would make him 81 at least, but according to Henry, his records say his age is otherwise.

“Far, far, further than that,” he said when The Gleaner told him of the 81-year span. “Mi a old man ya now.”

Asked how he calculated his years, he said, “Mommy responsible for that, bringing me up as a child. Daddy and she died quite a few years now.”

He lives alone and, by virtue of that, is left to fend on his own.

“I had two children, but its donkey years now since I saw them. I left them in Kingston,” Henry said. “We nuh meet up since then. The last argument I get about the little one is that he became a police.”

He gave his son’s name as Alfred and said he would be happy if one day he paid a visit.

One-man church

Jean Lowrie-Chin, president of the Caribbean Community of Retired Persons (CCRP), said that loneliness among elderly Jamaicans is not very pervasive due to their involvement in the church, but hastened to point out that children also have a role to play.

“What I have found with our elderly, most of them are very close to their church community, and as a result of that, they are able to have the company. I would say our Jamaican seniors are so involved with their church activities, even at an advanced age, they are very active and actually they are looking out for other people. As a result of that, I don’t think it’s as bad maybe for our society as it is for other societies.”

“I belong to the church. Mi a leader fi the church up there,” he told The Gleaner, pointing in the direction of the Ballimony Seventh-day Adventist Church, where he worships, even if it means all by his lonesome self.

“There was always plenty [people], enuh, but you would try to believe me, tek it as me tell you, a me one meet deh most time,” he said.

“Yes, sir. I go in, I sit down, I study my lesson and by the time I finish that and if it comes to anything, I can feed on that for the rest of the week. A nuh that mi would a want to do, enuh, but it boils down to that.”

The well-kept church grounds is all due to him, as Miss Fay, another farmer who knows Henry from his birth town, Lincoln, told The Gleaner.

“Him use him machete, but them get a whacker and dem send up a guy to help him,” she said.

Miss Fay told The Gleaner that Henry often mentions his children.

“Him tell me all the while say him have one girl and, yes, him son – the police one – but the girl did dead and he went to town for the funeral. Him have grandchildren, but him nuh know dem and dem nuh know him,” she said, adding that he still visits Lincoln from time to time.

National dialogue needed on elderly

Professor Denise Eldemire-Shearer, CCRP’s honorary chair, told The Gleaner that there needs to be a national dialogue on ageing and taking care of the elderly.

“[We need] to create awareness about ageing and what older persons need, because for many it’s not care, but interactions. Ageing is the final step in the life course and the product of all the stages before. Such a dialogue would increase awareness of preparing for ageing and maintaining connections with family and close friends. It’s a two-way street,” she said.

While not speaking directly to Henry’s case, Eldermire-Shearer said, “Connectivity in the later years is dependent on connectivity in the early years. Relationships are built over the years, not just when one is ageing. The ­parent, usually the father, wasn’t part of the children’s lives, neither physically or financially, so there are no bonds; so the children do not feel any ties to them and do not feel a responsibility for them.”

Lowrie-Chin is encouraging persons to keep in touch with their elderly relatives, especially if they have migrated to other sections of the island or even overseas.

“There is the case where the children migrate and what we would say to these children is that they should at least try to call ... just for them to hear your voice.

“Set up a time – at least once a week,” she advised.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com