Eileen Elexey stared forlornly at the rolls of toilet paper she had in front of her and contemplated her next move because the $100 she had made in sales was not enough to send her daughter to school next day.
It was 4 pm and she was not too optimistic that many shoppers would visit the Stabroek Market to purchase toilet paper or bath soap at that time of day.
“But wah a guh do? A gat to do something and this is the only way I know,” she told this newspaper.
A prospective customer approached her but when told that the roll of toilet paper cost $100 the woman walked away.
“You see, people can’t even afford $100,” Eileen said, but seconds later another customer purchased three rolls and the day’s sales mounted to $400.
“But this still ent enough, but I still thank God, things ent right but I still thank God. I miss he bad if he was alive I know things woulda be better,” she told Stabroek News.
The “he” she referred to was Carl Nelson Bollers, her reputed husband who was stabbed to death on July 25 as he guarded the Mercy Wings Vocational Centre in South Sophia. Bollers was attacked by a group of youths who robbed the centre.
Life was not easy for the family of three but Eileen said with Bollers around – a man whom she described as “the best companion in the whole wide world” – it was easier for herself and her daughter and just having him there made life bearable. Now that he is not there many days are spent fighting off the suicidal thoughts that enter her mind, but she knows she has to remain strong for her teenage daughter.
“But it hard you know; I does still cry a lot. It just hard for me right now, and sometimes I don’t know where to turn and who to turn to,” Eileen told this newspaper while she remained on the look-out around for possible customers. Making a few more hundred dollars before it was time to leave was foremost on her mind. Selling in the market is not easy for her because she does not have a stall and spends most of the day running from the city constables with her items for sale in her hands. It is not until after 3.30 pm that she is allowed to put her wares on the roadway and the hide-and-seek game with the constables comes to an end.
Eileen is accustomed to this, but prior to July 25 she knew that even if she did not make enough money one day Bollers was there to pitch in, and now she has only herself to rely on. As it is she approaches every day with some amount of trepidation.
She said sometimes her daughter would just sit around and say, “Mommy, you know I miss daddy,” but there is not much comfort she could give the child.
‘Justice’
Eileen finds it particularly hard that no one has been held responsible for her husband’s death, and now that more than two months have passed she fears that his murder would just become another cold case.
“I want justice, that is what I want, justice, and I ent getting that; somebody must pay for what happen to he and right now me ent trusting nobody,” the woman said.
She is not happy with the investigation being conducted by ranks at the Turkeyen Police Station and feels they are dragging their feet because she publicly berated them for taking three and a half hours to arrive on the scene.
Eileen had related to Stabroek News hours after the man’s death how she watched him dying with blood all around and had not been able to assist him because of the padlocked gate and the unwillingness of persons on the road to help. By the time the police arrived and he was taken to the hospital he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The woman had bemoaned what she termed the uncaring attitude of persons in the Sophia ‘A’ area who refused to help her take Bollers to the hospital even as he lay face down in the compound of the centre, where he had been employed for the last ten years. “People in this life really cruel, ow God why, why they must tek me only companion,” the woman had cried.
“I feel is because I talk about de three hours dat dem vex and I don’t know wah fuh do no mo, sometimes I frighten,” she said.
She recalled that when she visited the police station to enquire about the case she was made to sit for hours on the bench as the officer who was in charge of the case was not there.
In the end she got tired of waiting and left before the officer arrived.
“And when I sitting on de bench every time somebody come in de officer who bin deh pointing to me and saying ‘this is de wife of de guard who get kill’ and it was like if I went on exhibition or something,” Eileen said.
Since the police took the initial statement from her hours after the killing they have taken no further statement and Eileen is not sure what to make of this.
She referred to what she termed a “scary thing” when one night after she had spent almost an entire day at the station the police turned up at her home at around 11pm and asked her who she suspected had killed her husband.
The woman said she spoke to the police from her window. They were on the roadway but she recognized their vehicle. The gate was padlocked and she refused to open it and instead started to scream.
“I start to scream and call everybody who phone number I know because me ent know is who really and wah dem come for. Why deh police must come to me house at dah hour? Dem claim that dem didn’t finding me but dem have me phone number and know I does sell in deh market,” the woman said.
She said many persons came out on the street that night when she started to scream and in the end the police left.
Eileen was expected to visit the station again after receiving a call from the lawmen but she was not clinging to the hope that the visit would yield some results.
“I does be asking God fuh deh killer to come to justice,” she said.
She also told this newspaper that she had not received any form of assistance from her husband’s employer apart from a box of biscuits and a bottle coffee.
She said those at the centre had told her that they were still having meetings to determine what form of assistance to give her. Recently she was called to the centre and given a bag with some foodstuff.
“When dem give me dat I start to cry like a baby; a holler like me husband dead again and all de woman tell me is that this was not from the administrator but from the day-care section.”
She is hoping that one day she would receive some form of assistance from the centre that would make life easier for herself and daughter.
She says her husband was dedicated to the centre and was even given a plaque for his years of service there.
“I don’t know wah dem guh give me but he wuk deh long and dem must help we out with something,” Eileen said.
