WHEN Hurricane Melissa battered Jamaica two Tuesdays ago, a woman with the same name found herself caught in its fury.

In fact, the woman — Melissa Hutchinson Malcolm — broke her right leg while trying to help secure her mother’s house in Jericho, Hanover, which had an attached shop. As she recounted the moments leading up to her injury, Hutchinson Malcolm laughed at the irony of being maimed by her namesake, but expressed gratitude that she is alive to tell the tale.

“I went to help [my mother] and the building collapsed [with] me and my two sons, my mother, and three other persons. After the building went, we tried to run across [the road] and that’s when [Hurricane] Melissa lifted up the front part of the shop and hit me in the back of my foot, and that is how my foot got broken.

“When I [fell]…the board hit me on the back [of my foot]. My foot [bent] under the board, and this part down here twisted around,” she said, in reference to her ankle.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is it now.’ I thought it was broken off, then I felt when somebody [held] it and set it back, and I was able to get up, and I said, ‘Oh my God, my foot is broken.’ My son was crying — the big one — and the small one was crying also. He [the older son] helped to bring me across the road. We couldn’t come back down this side [where her home is located] because the zinc on the shops were blowing, so we had to go on the other side [of the road],” Hutchinson Malcolm told the Jamaica Observer last Wednesday.

“I would never want anybody to experience something like that — never. I didn’t know that I was going to make it through [Hurricane] Melissa, but to God be the Glory,” the thankful Hanover resident said.

Though the events were traumatic, the 41-year-old said she could not help but laugh at the fact that she was hurt by a hurricane with which she shares a name.

“Look at what Melissa did to Melissa. Melissa, why you do Melissa this?” she questioned, a small smile appearing on her face as she looked at her right leg, wrapped in a cast to stabilise the broken bone from her knee to the sole of her foot.

Hutchinson Malcolm said the incident became more humorous when she sought medical attention at the Noel Holmes Hospital in Lucea, and staff members joined in poking fun at her.

“The security [guard], when he came out, he said, ‘Hurricane Hutchinson Malcolm’, and then he was like ‘Melissa Hutchinson Malcolm!’ I said, ‘Sir, why you do that?’ Everybody was like, ‘Melissa, you’re not wicked like Melissa,’ and I said, ‘No,’ ” she shared, chuckling at the memory.

A chef at a hotel in St James, Hutchinson Malcolm said she is not sure what’s next, given that the tourism industry has also been impacted, with several hotels unable to accept bookings as they effect repairs to their properties following the onslaught of Hurricane Melissa. Temporarily unemployed with a broken bone, she told the Sunday Observer that she is trying to adjust to her new reality while still maintaining her independence.

The Hanover native shared that it now takes her an hour to get from her bedroom to her front gate, which is on an incline.

“I have to use [a] chair. Whenever this leg gets tired, even though I am on the crutches, I have to put it [aside], sit on [the chair], and move along again. That’s how I have to do it to move along, and it’s difficult,” she shared.

However, noting that at least 32 Jamaicans lost their lives when Hurricane Melissa ravaged the western section of the island on October 28, Hutchinson Malcolm said she is thankful to be alive.

She said when she broke her leg, the roads in the community were impassable. If her injury had been more severe, Hutchinson Malcolm believes she would have likely bled to death in the two days it took for the roads to be cleared and for her to be able to access medical care.

“To God be the glory, I am alive. I could’ve been dead but I’m alive, and I’m grateful for that because many did not make it, so I am here in pain, but I still have to give God thanks for that because I am alive,” she said.

As she prepares for her next doctor’s visit on Monday, the 41-year-old said any assistance would be welcomed.

“…Anyone who sees this and can assist, I am asking you to do so in any form of way. Whatever they can do; remember I am out of a job and I won’t be working for some time. I will need transportation and need to buy gas to go from here to Montego Bay and back and forth, and buy food. I have kids,” she pleaded.

Her mother, Janet Gray, also expressed thanks that no lives were lost and that her daughter received the necessary medical attention. As she recounted her account of the ordeal, she described it as devastating but noted that all hope is not lost.

Gray said that while her shop and home were destroyed, she still has a roof over her head. She pointed to an unfinished concrete building across the street, explaining that she was in the middle of construction to make it her permanent home. With the passage of Hurricane Melissa, that timeline has been moved up.

“A lucky me lucky that me have that house deck enuh, and when me say lucky, me lucky. I [gave] the [construction worker] three weeks, and I [gave] him $520,000, and nothing cyaa done. When I looked and me say a me have raw meat, so me have to look fire, I [had] to go back and take back the money from the man and give it to the next pre-mix man. When me give the next pre-mix man, he said two working days, and the Saturday [before the hurricane], the man came and did it. If the man never came and did it and cast it, me wouldn’t deh anywhere,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Gray said she lost all of her clothes and furniture. A portion of the items in her shop was also destroyed, but she is confident that she will rebuild.

“Such is life. Life has to go on. We have to start all over again, but while there is life, there is hope,” she said.

Janet Gray, Melissa Hutchinson Malcolm’s mother, recounts being inside her house with her daughter when it collapsed during the passage of Hurricane Melissa two Tuesdays ago.