MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Being around 57-year-old Ecklelyn Christie and her grandchildren for only a few minutes one can easily sense her dedication.

All told, she has eight grandchildren to dote on.

However, the death of her daughter five years ago transformed her supportive grandmother role into full-fledged motherhood for five of those children, including infant triplets. Now, Christie is struggling to cope.

“It tough,” Christie said simply when Jamaica Observer Central visited her at home in Land Settlement, central Manchester on Wednesday.

The way she tells it, her 31-year old daughter Kareen Dixon — affectionately called “Fine” — developed poor circulation and high blood pressure, which led to her early demise. After four months of being in and out of hospital, Christie said, Dixon, who was a divorcée, succumbed to her illness at the family home.

Christie then found herself “mother” of Mourice Gordon, who is now 18 years old, Tyrece Spence, now nine, and Dixon’s triple bundles of joy — Devaughn, Dedranel and Dedranea Swaby.

The triplets were only six months old when their mother died and according to Christie, her daughter only got a chance to hold the triplets once because of her illness.

Christie and her husband Alvan, who is a plumber, have remained the consistent provider and caregiver for all her daughter’s children since their mother’s passing.

She said that her nine-year-old grandson’s father also died early. Unfortunately, like so many across Jamaica, the fathers of the 18-year-old and the triplets are not as supportive as they should be, Christie claimed.

Her husband’s intermittent and meagre income keeps the family afloat, and as the triplets prepare to make the transition from early childhood to primary school, she is puzzling over how to balance and cover all expenses.

While the family benefits from the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), Christie says that only amounts to $6,000 — $8,000 every two months. She supplements that with earnings from a chicken-rearing business, which received a boost after her daughter died, in the form of 50 chickens and 10 bags of feed from Councillor Donovan Mitchell (PNP — Royal Flat Division).

As a member of the Land Settlement Farmers group, she is grateful for the councillor’s support. She said, however, that the business has declined because the cost of caring for the children has not allowed her to recapitalise as she should have.

Christie is worried about her grandchildren, particularly the five-year-old triplets, as both her and her husband’s ability to earn will further dwindle with advancing age. She has made enquiries at the PATH office in Mandeville to see if there are any further provisions from which she could benefit for the triplets, but she has not received a response, she said.

“Papers were sent to Kingston (but) I did not hear anything,” she said.

Ideally, Christie wants the children to stay in her care and is not interested in giving them to “strangers”. She, however, wants them to have the best chance of a good education and says she needs financial support.

Christie said that the triplets have obvious potential and their nine-year old brother assists them with schoolwork.

“If they (children) are, for example, performing at school, you can hear dem voice (as it stands out). Dem love dem book. As you hear dem come een a the book dem head for. A good education mi wah fi dem,” she said.