TEN days after running around Auglo Senior Living Nursing Home in Black River, St Elizabeth, with staff, attending to 13 residents as Hurricane Melissa took the roof and flood waters invaded the building, then wading through knee-high water to safely relocate them to his Bull Savannah home, Hugh Barnes died.

His actions on October 28 were heroic, but the physical, mental, and subsequent financial toll of the Category 5 storm were his kryptonite.

Despite saving everyone, Barnes, 65, suffered a heart attack and died on November 7. His widow, Melaney Walters Barnes, shared that in their last conversation, moments before his death, he was trying to find an electrician to speed up the restoration of power at the nursing home.

Barnes and his family established the three-year-old nursing home in 2022, shortly after his mother’s death — converting their family home into the facility. Walters Barnes said, although owning a nursing home had always been her dream, her husband grew deeply invested in the process and became a pillar of the institution.

She recounted that the day before the hurricane made landfall, Barnes went to the facility to assist the nurses, unable to bear the thought of leaving those he considered family to face the Category 5 system alone.

“I was on the phone [with him] when the first mango tree fell, and it fell outside, towards the road. He said to me, ‘Baby, the hurricane is coming, but I don’t think this is the full head of it, because it’s not bad,’ then the phone went dead. [After] that point I did not hear back from him again until his son, who lives in the area, went and checked on him [when the roads cleared two days later],” Walters Barnes told the Jamaica Observer.

She said later that same day it was revealed that the nursing home residents needed urgent evacuation due to the rising water levels and damage. When the roads cleared, Walters Barnes said she, too, sprang into action.

“I called my cousins. I said, ‘We need to get a bus, a truck, and a van to go get them.’ This was Thursday night. Friday morning, they all went down there from Bull Savannah, ready to move…and they got Mr Barnes,” she recalled, her voice heavy with grief.

Walters Barnes got emotional as she recounted the events of the stormy night as relayed to her by a nurse at the facility.

“At times when the mattresses were falling down — because they had to pack mattresses on top of mattresses because of the water — Mr Barnes would come and hug up the patients and have patients hug him up so he could keep them [out of the water]. He was six feet and five inches [in height], so he was tall, and he could push them up to secure them and balance the mattress to keep them up there,” she told the Sunday Observer, her voice breaking.

After a brief pause, she continued: “The nurses told me that when the other male nurse was tired, Mr Barnes would just jump up and help them. The only thing he would not do is change them [the residents’ clothes], but he did everything and worked to help get them out of there and brought them to his personal home in Bull Savannah.”

Walters Barnes shared that their home had also sustained some damage to the roof, but the first floor of the building was in decent condition. She said that with swamped infrastructure damage and taking care of the seniors, the workload was heavy, but her husband, his adrenaline still flowing from the day the storm hit, was working hard to put the pieces back together. The widow said she believes he worked himself into overdrive as he took on the toll of the losses sustained.

“He was going back and forth to Black River every day to salvage through the destruction for the residents’ clothes, the residents’ medication, the sheets — whatever could be salvaged — so that even though they’re here [at our house], they would not feel so out of place. They would have some kind of normalcy to their new environment,” she shared.

Then came November 7. His wife recalled that she was on the phone with her husband when he told her that he was going to get an electrician to help him with the restoration of electricity. That was the last time she heard from him.

She said that moments after their call he complained about chest pains to the nursing home manager. Barnes was having a heart attack. He was taken to hospital where he passed. Barnes was laid to rest just over a month later, on December 14, after a thanksgiving service celebrating his life.

“His job was done. If you talk to any of the residents, if you come here and speak with them, they will tell you [that] he was their hero because of what he did,” she said, fighting back tears.

After a moment, she continued: “The residents — some with dementia, some bedridden — some are very aware of what’s going on. It’s just like your whole life is just turned upside down, and when you think about it… it’s an emotional horror that will stay with me for the rest of my life, but it’s even worse when you think of the ones that are so vulnerable. They’re the most vulnerable, and yet they’re the ones that no one cares about — nobody. He had to take it all on,” she said, overwhelmed with emotions.

“I know people’s hands are full, but when you have a place that is for your seniors, who some are bedridden, nobody could just say, ‘Let’s go there, send the police, send somebody to check on them.’ He had to… he had it all on his own. He had to orchestrate everything on his own. He sacrificed his own life for these people,” she said, pausing as she wiped tears from her eyes.

As she spoke about her late husband’s character and his relationship with the seniors, Walters Barnes advocated that he be recognised for his bravery and selflessness.

“I think he should be remembered and honoured on the fact that he sacrificed his own life for people who have lived their lives. We’re all humans, but the mere fact that my husband sacrificed his life for them, doing what he had to do, says a lot. I think that not just him, but the nurses that were with him during the time of the hurricane and after the hurricane should be honoured,” said Walters Barnes.

“I have to tell you that we not only lost my husband, a business partner, and friend, but we lost a tremendous part of all of us,” she added.

A childhood friend of Barnes for more than 50 years, Howard Hendriks, shared that he was not surprised that Barnes went the extra mile to save the residents. Hendriks said he was particularly grateful for his friend’s brave acts because one of the 13 patients was his father.

He recalled other acts of bravery by Barnes during their time at Munro College, noting that it was always second nature for his friend, whom he affectionately called Fitzy.

“He was a kind, gentle soul, as Bunny Wailer would say in a song. He was a bright soul, and sometimes you have to look into the soul of man because most of us don’t look at that, we look into wealth and so on. I would say that Fitzy was wealthy in all forms, because you can be wealthy in cosmic and positive vibrations,” he told the Sunday Observer.

Hendriks also championed the call for Barnes to be honoured for his actions, noting that people in rural Jamaica are often overlooked for their commendable deeds.

“Kingston is not Jamaica. We have our life out here, and a lot of people don’t get recognised out here. Fitzy should be recognised,” he argued.

Meanwhile, Custos of St Elizabeth Beryl Rochester shared that in the few times she met Barnes, he was very kind and sociable.

“I was shocked [that he passed]… like everybody else. But, knowing the kind of person he is and how he regarded the patients at the home, I’m not surprised that he had put himself to great lengths to save them. His is an act of bravery. I am sure there are others, but what I would like to see is more people showing bravery or kindness to help out another human being,” she said.

Walters Barnes said she has taken over managing the repairs of both the nursing home and her personal dwelling.

“I’m home now, and I have to hurry up and finish my bedroom up on the second floor so that the whole entire first floor can accommodate the residents, because what else am I gonna do with them? They’re like family.

“The financial loss is beyond words. I made sure we had everything that we could go to, when we need it. We had tables and chairs, just like if we were going to have a picnic. We had everything set in place. We had our own table, all that stuff is gone. Everything is washed away, everything is destroyed. Barrels and barrels of supplies, pampers, lotions — everything is gone. It’s a devastating blow to everyone that’s involved in this nursing home. It’s extremely, extremely hard,” she told the
Sunday Observer, adding that any assistance is welcome.

A fallen tree, flood waters and debris outside the Auglo Senior Living Nursing Home in Black River, St Elizabeth, moments after the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

The roof at Auglo Senior Living Nursing Home was ripped off during the passage of Hurricane Melissa, leaving behind debris and other infrastructure damage. 

Melaney Walters Barnes and her late husband Hugh Barnes in happier times.