Approximately eight years ago, Esmin Green went to the ‘Big Apple’ in search of a better life for her six children. Her ultimate aim was that one day they could reunite as a family.

But her children will never get the chance to enjoy what their mother worked so hard to achieve. Instead, they have been left with the heavy burden of coming to grips with images, now etched in their minds, of their mother dying alone on the waiting room floor of a New York hospital.

Sebert Dennis, Green’s stepfather who cared for her since she was five years old, told the Sunday Observer that Green was taken to the hospital after she started displaying symptoms of psychosis.

“The pastor of the church that she used to go to called my daughter Brenda [James] and informed her that she [Esmin] took sick and went to the pastor’s home and was acting a little strange, so the pastor called the ambulance and sent her off to the hospital,” he said.

“Because she has a little mental disturbance some time, when that comes up she goes to the hospital for medication, so she went there for the medication and them never treat her at the same time,” added Dennis.

Dennis said he was told that Green, 49, was given an injection and was waiting to be assigned to a hospital bed when she took a turn for the worse.

“Them put her on a chair to sit for her to get a bed and she fell off the chair and nobody paid her any attention,” he said.

Green’s shocking death on June 19 was captured on a surveillance video that shows her wearing a blue dress and a cream head tie as she waited in the King’s County Hospital emergency room for nearly 24 hours. She toppled from her chair at 5:32 am, hitting her head. She struggled to get up and then finally lay prostrate on the floor. She was dead by 6:35 am. All this took place under the watchful eye of three other patients in the waiting room. Green was ignored by hospital staff even though she laid in that position for almost an hour. Two security guards who checked on her while she was on the floor did not help her either.

“I broke down badly,” Dennis said, as he related his reaction to seeing the video on a local TV channel last week. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Dennis was married to Green’s mother, his first wife, who died from breast cancer when she was about 20 years old. Her father is also deceased. Green was born in Lluidas Vale, but grew up in Duxes, a community just outside Point Hill in St Catherine.

“She grow with me from she was about five till she became an adult,” said Dennis. “She married and live here a good time and have three children right here until she moved to Kingston to start her business.”

While he had not seen her for years, Dennis said the last time he spoke to his step-daughter was last year.

“She told me that she was getting on well and she wished me all the best and that she hoped to see me soon,” he said. “She communicated very often with her children and her sisters.”

Dennis remembered Green as jovial, friendly and a woman who had strong Christian principles.

“She was supposed to sing at church the last Sunday, I heard,” he said.

Reverend Hopeton Allman, who knew Green for the past three years and was appointed spokesman for her children, said Green was a hard-working mother who put her children first.

“What I know is that she is a mother who really cared about her children,” he said. “She was a very friendly person who was liked by everyone, but she was very straightforward.”

He said she gave up her successful business of selling fish to vendors downtown Kingston to go to the US to better the lives of her children and to get away from a family crisis that became unbearable.

“She owned a boat and she would sell the fish wholesale to the vendors,” Rev Allman explained. “She was also an ICI (Informal Commercial Importer) in the early days and used to visit neighbouring countries to purchase goods and come back and sell them.”

“She left because of family difficulties,” Rev Allman said, explaining that he was not at liberty to divulge any more information about that aspect of her family life. “She wanted a break from it. She went back and forth to the United States until she finally decided that she would stay on and get her permanent status so she could really have her children with her.”

Rev Allman, who has been in constant contact with the family, said Green’s children have been devastated by the loss of their mother. They are still reeling from the shocking surveillance tapes that were broadcast. He told the Sunday Observer that the Greens learnt about her death from a man who called them identifying himself as a private investigator.

“Sad, distressed and upset, those are the three words that they have used to describe how they feel,” he said. “They were really upset after the video came out as to how she died.”

In the years he knew her, Rev Allman said Green never displayed any form of psychosis.

“I spoke to her a couple of weeks ago and there was no manifestation of the illness. What we learnt was that she had a nervous breakdown,” he said. “She was depressed and under a lot of stress.”

Yesterday, when the Sunday Observer visited the Duxes Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church where Green got married, members of the church reminisced on the events which led to her death.

“It is a shame that people have to suffer this way,” a woman who did not give her name said. “I saw it on the television and I am boiling inside to know that she died like that. They could have done something to help her.”

An elderly woman who gave her name as Ellen Pottinger, said she knew Green when she was a child. News of her death, Pottinger said, was heart-wrenching.

“It is really sad to know that something like that happen to somebody you know,” she said. “She always used to go and hustle her little bread so she could take care of her children.”

Another woman, who said she was Green’s classmate when they attended Lluidas Vale Primary School, remembered her as a “playful and loving girl”.

Julia Jones Davis said Green’s death made her tearful, especially when she reflected on how hard she worked to make sure that her kids were happy.

“It reminded me that life is filled with so much changes and you always have to be careful of the life that you choose,” she said. “She left her children for so many years to go and make a life for them. When I think about it tears come to my eyes. She always took care of her children.”

Four family members, including Green’s daughter and sister, flew to the US on Friday to attend a memorial service being held for Green today. Her body will be flown back to the island on Tuesday for the funeral service that will be held at the Duxes SDA Church next Sunday. Dennis said she will be interred on a piece of land she purchased many years ago. The city of New York will be covering the cost of the funeral arrangements.

Meanwhile, Dennis was firm in supporting the family’s decision to take legal action against the hospital.