“The rain wet me through and through. You see, I had to take off me socks today. Is the rain. I stand up at the gas station for a long time but then I had to walk and go and even though I had umbrella the rain still went me,” she said.
She was soaked but just talking in a matter of fact manner.
“Girl, I have to go to work whether I like it or not because if I don’t then me children dem can’t eat,” she continued.
She is a security guard and a single parent, and I would sometimes give her a lift home, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that she is working longer hours. She does not seem too bothered by the increased hours as for her having a job is very important.
“Some people would skin up dem face on security work, you know, but now since this COVID is security guard alone ain’t getting lay off. Look how much people lose dem work. Wah I guh do if the people increase the hours? I just have to work,” she told me one day.
“In the morning I just try to come out early, since 5 o’clock I does leave me house so sometimes before six I does reach. I does rather meet early, you know, and once I meet early then the person I teking over from could go home. In the afternoon they would come back early, and I can get to leave early,” she reasoned.
“But this morning I reach lil late because of de rain,” she added that afternoon when she was forced to remove her socks.
One afternoon I asked if she did not long to do better than a security guard and she quickly responded in the affirmative.
“Of course, but what else I could get now at this age? Maybe a cleaning work and not domestic because people does want work you out and pay you next to nothing. Maybe working as a cleaner at some ministry or something. But I really can’t get much more because I didn’t get the opportunity to go to school.
“Sometimes I does think about going back to school but then I does remember I have me children and I have to give them the opportunity. I have to work dem hours so that they could get a education. For me, me life done live already. I have to like, live through dem now. I just want be a good mother,” she told me.
“Security is still a work and is honest work. I not being no shame about wah I do because it is honest work and it helping to support me children. You know I single and sometimes, you know, a man might show interest but when he hear I is a security is like I don’t something illegal or something. But I does not let it bother me because wah is for me is for me and if I just have to live for me children then so be it,” she said to me one afternoon.
“I does just smile sometimes because now I think nuff people would want a security work. Is better than being home and getting no money. At least me money ain’t have to cut and is everyday a getting to go to work and a having my days off and so,” she told me.
“When the people increase de hours, I was not too please because it mean I guh deh on de road late. And at first you know I was a lil frighten especially when the security guard get find dead in the cemetery but the people say if you don’t want to work dem hour you could stay home till the coronavirus thing pass. Well I can’t afford that, and I just had to pray and come out to work.
“Me ain’t vex because the people dem taking blows to, you know. They losing some a the locations and as a tell you I just happy fuh the hold on because so much people losing dem jobs. I does just pay attention and be careful and God will do the rest. I can’t have fear, because that wouldn’t help me, so I just have to brave it and do what I have to do,” she said.
“How I look at life is that one day things must get better. I can’t stay like this all de time. Then I does say it have people worse than me. At least I have a job and a roof over me head. We don’t always have good things to eat but we don’t starve. I know about starvation but right now me and me children don’t have to go through that,” she continued.
What I love about this woman and one of the reasons I sometimes go out of my way to give her a ride is the fact that she seldom complains. Yes, she would share with me what is happening in her life, but it is never really a complaint. It is always more about her sharing and me just listening. She does not tell me this, but when she speaks it is like she is saying I don’t want your sympathy, I just want you to listen.
“I does count my blessings because you know what? I have good children. I does listen and see people have to be running to childcare and so on for them children, especially single mothers, but me, never a problem. They go to school and all like now when I leave, it never cross me mind that dem leaving the house, only if I tell them. I not saying dem perfect because nuff afternoon I when go home is quarrel because the house in a mess, the wares ent wash and so. But at the end of the day I still happy that they does stay home, and the big boy don’t be going and roaming all around.
“It does hurt me heart when I going home in de night sometimes and young, young boy children out on the streets and I wondering where they mother and father. Me children understand that when I gone to work is fuh dem to stay home and that is what they do,” she told me one day.
As she spoke of her children there was noticeable pride on her face, and I felt so happy for her.
“Me children ain’t bright and so but they does try with they schoolwork and I confident with God that they would become something in this life. All a dem done tell me what they want to do when dem grow big and I would work to help it happen,” she added.
Sometimes after listening to this sister, I go home buoyed up because of the positive vibes I get from her. I wish the security firm she works with could do better for the employees, but I was happy that she was finding a way to work around it. Giving her a ride once in a while does not only do good for her because then she can save her bus fare and also get home earlier, it also does something for me.
The positive vibes are worth making a detour from my normal route. I just hope the trials of this life don’t take away that positive spirit.
