WHEN medical complications shattered her dream of becoming a mother, Dorret Smikle was devastated but that led her to fostering children in State care — one of whom has special needs.

A 70-year-old street vendor, who can be found at the bus stop between Spanish Town Hospital and the health centre with her husband Lester Peart, Smikle said her 16 years of fostering have been rough financially. However, she’d still be willing to welcome more children into her home because they filled a gaping hole in her heart that formed as she yearned to experience motherhood.

Her journey began when a welcomed pregnancy in her twenties ended in termination due to complications associated with her fallopian tubes.

“The doctor said I must not do that [get pregnant] again else it’s either the child or my life, so I didn’t choose that life,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

Instead, she tended to every child who crossed her path and needed care, and provided for them in any way she could, but she still wanted to do more.

“One Sabbath [in 2009] I came home from church and I was lying down on my veranda. I was sleeping and I heard a voice say, ‘Visit the children’s home.’ I turned to one of the girls that I look after — my sister’s daughter — I told her, and she said to me, ‘Mommy, mommy, I know where a home is. I’m going to take you there,’ and she took me to the [Strathmore Gardens Children’s home] on the Sunday,” she recounted.

“When I went there, I carried some things — biscuits and stuff — for them. I saw a little girl and she called to me and said to me, ‘Are you my mother?’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ From that, I started visiting the little girl and I started carrying things for her,” said Smikle.

That little girl was Ashanti Hinds, who was three years old at the time. With each visit, Smikle said their bond grew and became evident to those around them. An employee at the children’s home asked if she would be interested in fostering Ashanti.

Smikle did not think that option was available to her but when presented with the opportunity, she gladly accepted. Two months later, she was a foster parent.

She said she was eventually asked to foster two other children, one of whom — Naleem Richards — has special needs. Smikle shared that he’s visually impaired and has issues with his limbs, but she loved him like her own flesh and blood.

“I have compassion that I feel definitely with those children. Even when I sit down here and I see some of them pass, my heart goes out to some of them…that’s why I chose a child with special needs,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Just over 1,200 of the more than 4,600 children in State care, as of December 2024, are part of the country’s foster care programme, which is administered by the Child Protection and Family Services Agency.

Smikle told the Sunday Observer that her work as a street vendor has taken her to many places, and as she moved from Duhaney Park in St Andrew to Spanish Town, St Catherine, and even outside the gate of Eltham High School, she would win the affection of many children who cling to her. She gave some of them lunch and even had them visit her home for dinner.

“I just love to have children around me. I cannot be alone; I want to have children around me. Anything that I get, I would rather know that I give them something and I do without, and that has never happened yet — I always get something. Sometimes I will be home and I say, ‘Lord, I don’t have any money,’ and quick, quick time me hear my husband come with something, because he hustles too. He goes out and sells on Sundays so we always have something,” said Smikle.

She shared that she also receives assistance from the Government and members of the Family of God Seventh-day Adventist Church in Spanish Town, which recently awarded her a certificate in recognition of the good work she’s been doing.

“They see how much I love them because all of them, I carry them to church,” she said, smiling.

While most of the children are now adults, some of whom live overseas and have started their own families, Smikle said their connection remains strong.

“See all my birthday to come the 28th [of May]? [It will be pure] excitement. Things a guh come inna the house and I don’t know [about them]; a when them start dressing me up and me see all kinds of things and have big excitement, I will know,” she said, laughing, adding that each year they make it their mission to throw her a birthday party.

With only Naleem left in her care, Smikle said she would be open to fostering more children. In fact, she joked that she would even build a big mansion to house as many children as possible if she could, and buy a new car to hold her children and grandchildren comfortably.

“Sometimes I tell my husband, ‘Maybe I’m going to stop coming out here [to vend at the bus stop], and because him go out on Sundays, him can just go out and I’ll stay home and look after them. It’s my joy to look after them,” she said, adding that she is even open to adopting Naleem, who is 12 years old.

As she reflected on her journey to motherhood Smikle said, “sometimes I feel a way to say I don’t have any [children], because of what happened to me, but then happiness comes to me between me and them [her foster children]. They make me happy, and I thank God for them”, she said.

Street vendor Dorret Smikle and her husband Lester Peart travel to the bus stop, between Spanish Town Hospital and the health centre in St Catherine, almost daily to earn a living so as to support their foster child. (Photo: Gavin Jones)