OCHO RIOS, ST Ann — For over a decade PetaGaye “Aliberry” Golding has been balancing a cardboard box on her head, stacked with household and car items that she hopes will entice pedestrians and motorists to crack open their wallets. She enjoys the hustle and loves bantering with her customers, but she dreams of bigger things.

She’s hoping a Good Samaritan will grant her Christmas wish and help her expand her business. She longs to have a shop.

“I love what I do and I would like to go further, but I don’t have the money right now. My greatest Christmas wish is if God could just send somebody to help me and promote me,” Golding told the Jamaica Observer.

The 45-year-old Islington, St Mary, resident said that boost to her business would help her to better care for her family, especially her four children. She now struggles to keep her household afloat.

“I would be so grateful because it means I could get to send my children through school and provide a better life for my family. My husband is there but is house him build and sometimes there is no work, so I have to help to keep the family going,” she said.

This longing for “a better life” is what has pushed her to take on the one-hour trip from St Mary to Kingston every Thursday to purchase goods for resale. From Monday to Friday she is on the streets of Ocho Rios, chasing every sale. She is proud that she has earned enough to put her eldest daughter, now 25, through school. Now she has her heart set on seeing her become a nurse.

“She have eight CXC and three CAPE and now she studying [to be a] registered nurse,” Golding said. “If mi Christmas wish come through and mi have a better business mi can help her finish her studies and also send my other children to get something better for themselves,” the ambitious mother added.

Her daughter, she said, has made her proud. It appears the young woman is just as ambitious as her mother.

“Mi feel good that she hold up her head because it is not easy. My daughter say one day she want to help mi because she picture me walking around with the box and she don’t want her mother to be doing that forever,” Golding added.

Her job has not been easy, but Golding’s passion for sales goes all the way back to when she was 10 years old, excitedly going to the market with her late grandmother, Miss Birde, who sold produce.

“We were poor and that is the only way she could put food on the table. So from watching her I fell in love and learn a lot,” Golding told the Observer. “Now I’m so good at it, people tell me that I am the best sales lady in Ochi because I know how to speak properly and I deal with people very well.”

Reiterating that all she wants for Christmas is a shop to call her own Golding said, “If for Christmas I see that my wish come through, mi would say, ‘Thank you Jesus!’ Mi need this chance to help others as well because I have to share my blessings.”

Anyone wishing to help can contact her at 876-325-3623.