Every day at 11 am, 75-year-old Elain Jones leaves her Lot 23 Bagotville home and cycles across the Demerara Harbour Bridge to Ruimveldt where she buys 100lbs of ice before proceeding to Alexander Street where she sells drinks to earn an income for herself.
“Twenty years now me deh pun dis,” Jones told this newspaper, adding that she has become accustomed to riding the distance although in the beginning it was difficult. Before she leaves in the morning, she completes her household chores and does a bit of farming in her kitchen garden at her West Bank Demerara home.
“I plant plantains, eddoes and every little thing I can put in the earth,” she said. She likes being independent and is happy working since it keeps her active.
Jones was on her third bicycle when she recently received a new one – a Mountain Climber – from the police officers in Police Division ‘D’ West Demerara/ East Bank Essequibo. The commander of the division handed over the bicycle on behalf of ranks in the division.
“I’m proud of it because I needed a bike. I am more than thankful,” she said of the donation.
Every day at 19:00 hrs, Jones packs up her stall and begins the journey back home. While on the way, if her bicycle tyre suffers a puncture, she pushes it all the way home. “I don’t leave my bike anywhere,” she said.
