LESTER Griffiths needs help.The 83-year-old man is living in poor conditions and has not been in contact with relatives for years, triggering severe depression and anxiety in him. The story never gets old, although the former St Ann Municipal Corporation employee has been living below the poverty line for almost a decade.

He was walking down Main Street in St Ann’s Bay when the Jamaica Observer North & East approached him.

“Mi feel like I going drop down. The foot cyah go nuh more,” the feeble elder said.

He was breathing heavily, and what was supposed to be a two-minute walk to his house from a community shop took forever. When he finally arrived and managed to push open the weathered gate, all his problems were evident.

A styrofoam box with mildewed water crackers rested by a worn out mattress he had perched against the outside of the wooden, run-down structure he called home. His yard space was enveloped with debris, while termites inflicted great damage on the inside.

“Is years mi live here; mi live here 30 years. One bad man try fight mi fi move seh him come fi take di place, but people wouldn’t make him take it. Miss Bogle call me and give mi this place. She dead now so dem try fight me for it. This (house) never looked like what you seeing here now. It usually look after but after mi stop work nobody help mi take care of it. Mi used to work a parish council and pay mi bills but now public service cut off the light. Mi nuh owe public service nuh money but dem cut off mi light and mi nuh have nuh water too,” Griffiths said.

He no long receives a pension.

and little help comes from residents in the community, where he canvasses, begging food and money from strangers. He shared with Observer North & East that his days without food are unmatched.

He shares four children with his wife who, he said, has since lost her memory and would have no recollection of him. He is unsure of her whereabouts now. Observer North & East was also unable to locate her.

“Mi wife deh somewhere pon di hill deh, gone to nothing. Dem seh she nuh know nobody. Mi have ’bout four (children) but dem is not here. Two [is] in America and two live here in St Ann’s Bay. But you know mi here and if a man come and give me a [money] mi use it. Sometimes some people help mi out—people from the community. Mi go fi hot water sometime a Dumpling Shop or mi go dung a one restaurant and dem help mi out with food,” the man said.

“Everything gone bad enuh, nothing nuh nice again. Mi broke; mi nuh have nuh money. Sometime mi walk go and beg and a man might give me a money and mi can buy mi something. I don’t know if I can get some help now. I would like some help,” Griffiths said.