Retired farmer regrets not planning for the rainy days

Eighty-four-year-old Gilford Smith, a retired farmer, has one major life regret, and that is not having a pension plan in place.

Pension planning is one crucial aspect of life which many persons in Jamaica take for granted and do not prepare or plan for when they are young and able to.

Smith warned against this practice.

Without a pension plan, health insurance, an income, and with an ill 84-year-old wife to care for, Smith said he has been at the point of giving up on life, but his faith has kept him going.

“Mi never know say mi would reach to this weh mi can’t help miself. You know when you young and strong and can do everything fi yuself? Mi never know that mi would deh yah now and can [hardly] walk and people haffi do things fi mi. Mi never think bout that at all. Mi nuh have no insurance nor nothing; none at all,” Smith, who lives at Hillview, Bannister, in St Catherine, explained to The Gleaner on Monday at his home.

When asked to describe his current situation, he promptly responded, “Mi nuh really like talk bout it yu nuh, cause every time mi talk bout it mi affi cry. It is so hard on me.

“Mi nuh have help. Mi have a daughter weh she leave here from 1993 and mi wife [Hercie Smith] take sick 1994 and mi affi up and dung with her [to the] doctor and everything. Mi affi feed her cause she can’t feed herself. Give her medication two times a day and do everything to her, so mi have it very hard,” Smith explained with tears in his eyes.

He told The Gleaner that he depends on his neighbours and Good Samaritans who intervene from time to time.

Smith, who has numerous health issues, is the sole caregiver of his ill wife.

CONCERNED NEIGHBOUR

A concerned neighbour, Veronica Pommells, who contacted The Gleaner, said he oftentimes try to bathe his bed-ridden wife, who is the same age as he is.

“His feet are now swollen, he is visually impaired and he suffers from arthritis. It’s a sad situation and he really needs help,” Pommells told The Gleaner.

In addition to bathing his wife, Smith changes her clothes and cuts her hair.

However, he said, at his age, his hands cannot keep steady to clip her nails any more, so they are overgrown.

He said persons always donate diapers, for which he is extremely grateful, but he oftentimes falls short with food.

During the visit by The Gleaner to his home on Monday, he said he had not eaten in 24 hours.

“Right now, Saturday mi drink some porridge and yesterday mi drink some bag juice. Mi nuh eat no food,” he said before crying.

“Mi affi just bare weh mi a go through. Mi naav no choice.”

Smith said the pandemic has also placed an additional burden on his life.

“Two year now mi nuh get fi nuh carry her [his wife] back a di doctor fi get check up. Every six months the doctor seh mi fi carry her, [but] chruu di COVID, mi nuh carry her. Mi affi charter taxi and mi can’t manage her, so two smadi affi come with me ... sometime mi nuh feel good a talk dem sumn here, but a just so. Mi can’t do better,” he told The Gleaner.

He said his wife, whom he has been married to for 40 years, was a housewife who sold coal which he would make in the past. She, too, did not have a pension plan.

She has suffered five strokes in the last 20 years.

“From she get the last strokes 2012, she nuh walk again, and if mi did have somebody wid mi, maybe she wuda walk again, but chruu a me and she one deh a day time, mi can’t manage her, so she affi just lay down,” he said.

Smith said that the house he and his wife live in is their house, and he sold a land two years ago to clear off his electricity bill that was owing.

He is pleading for help with a constant source of food supplies, given that he had worked in the past to ensure that a roof is over their heads.

“Mi nuh have no bredda, no sista and no cousin. A just me one work and have wha you see mi have ya. Mi mada just have me one. Naav no family beside mi daughter weh mi get ... it is very hard on me,” he said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com

Persons interested in assisting Smith can call him at 876-473-7974 or his neighbour Veronica Pummells at 876-366-1956.