SPRINGFIELD, Clarendon — For her entire adult life Lyn Anderson Nicholson has worked as a domestic helper, earning the bare minimum, but she was determined to make the most of the little she had. Her dream was to build a house and, through saving and a lot of sacrifices, Lyn managed to do just that.

It was the most rewarding time of her life when her family moved in and her eight children had a comfortable place of their own. Lyn and her husband Rhoan Nicholson provided as best they could for their eight children. Four of their offspring have moved out to build lives of their own but the younger ones — aged 19, 15, 11 and six — and two grandchildren still live with them.

“A 23 years it take me to save and build my house and mi have to work hard. Wake up out of mi bed early mornings to wash people dirty clothes, clean them yard and sometimes mi take care of old people. It never easy but mi never make that stop me from saving. Mi just put mi mind to it because mi have the children them that need a roof over them head,” Lyn told the Jamaica Observer.

In a cruel twist of fate, their three-bedroom house in Springfield, Clarendon, was destroyed by fire last Tuesday.

“It terrible on mi because when mi look and see that all that mi work for just gone like that. Every night mi cry and can’t sleep because trust mi nuh easy,” Lyn lamented.

It appears the fire was accidentally started by Lyn’s granddaughter who lit the sheets of a bed on fire as she played with a lighter she found on the kitchen table.

“Mi in a my room a watch a show then mi granddaughter come to mi and tell mi that she don’t feel well so she gone lay down. But then mi feel some heat a come in my room and mi hear when the little girl jump up and say, ‘Jesus Christ. a how this happen man!’ And when mi run go to the room go look mi see a fire a blaze up. But it did too late to save anything because the two beds in the room were on fire,” Lyn explained.

“The smoke was killing mi so mi run to the road and call some people but them still couldn’t help,” she added.

All was lost. Lyn broke down in tears as she stared at her years of hard work being swallowed by uncontrollable flames. She immediately thought about the fact that her family would have to revert to life of living in someone else’s space.

“Look how mi work so mi don’t have to live in people place and now it come reach mi again. We are staying at a friend house in the community but because is so much a we it not even comfortable. When I had my house the children had their TV and everything to their comfort and all of that just gone like that,” she told the Observer.

“Even my husband take it hard, him not even can go work because all him clothes burn up,” Lyn added.

Officers from the Lionel Town Police Station, where her husband is employed as a gardener, have been helping out where possible.

“The police come around and give us things for the babies and they give us a brand new bed and I really appreciate it,” Lyn said.

The fire has taken a toll on her 15-year-old daughter, MoyaKaye Nicholson, who is worried because even before the fire her family was already struggling.

“I cry because I know that my mommy don’t have any money, sometimes, to send us to school and I have to help her wash people clothes so we can get money. Mi feel depressed because everything for mi burn up and mi can’t go school because I don’t have any uniform,” she said.

A determined Lyn is hoping to rebuild but she has no idea where the money will come from. She is currently unemployed and her husband’s meagre income is what they rely on for food and the bare minimum needed to run their household. “Some days I don’t even cook because I just don’t have the money, any little thing I can find I give the children,” she said. “I have a cousin overseas that help me out but I can’t depend on she alone so I pray something work out.”

Anyone who wishes to assist the family may contact Lyn Nicholson at (876) 784-8496.