ESHER, St Mary — Seventy-year-old Ronald Malcolm misses his 80-year-old wife Aida, but he doesn’t want her back in their shambolic home after she is released from the hospital where her legs were amputated. Childless, they are both blind and barely able to survive. Meals sometimes consist of only boiled green bananas or plantains that he reaps from the yard.

“Me miss her; me just don’t want her to come back here and suffer more. Me want Government to take her so she can get look after properly,” a desperate Malcolm told the Jamaica Observer during a recent visit to the couple’s home in Esher, St Mary.

Aida has been in hospital for the past three months. Her legs were amputated because of complications from diabetes.

Malcolm’s days are filled with uncertainty, wondering where his next meal will come from and how he will care for his wife when she is back in their one-room dwelling. He relies on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) payment of $6,500 every other month to purchase food. His wife is not a PATH beneficiary.

According to Malcolm, years ago she tried to apply at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security but was told her only form of identification, a voters’ ID card, was outdated. So he eagerly awaits his PATH benefit each time.

“I get it in February and just waiting for April one. When I get it I will buy food. Sometimes it is just banana alone or green plantain we would eat if nuh mackerel or sardine nuh deh here,” he told the
Observer.

Lit by a single solar light, the couple’s modest home is crammed tight with a bed, and a plastic table with two chairs. In one corner there is a half-finished bathroom. The kitchen, made of wood, is a separate structure outside. Meals are prepared on fires fuelled by wood. The couple’s routine, over the years, has seen Malcolm taking on the role of chef and Aida doing the housecleaning and laundry.

Now it is all up to him.

“Me can’t help her now cause she a wear Pampers and her two foot dem gone,” Malcolm said, struggling to hold back tears.

Originally from Dressikie in western St Mary and parts of St Elizabeth, the couple have lived in Esher for more than 10 years. Kind members of the community and church sometimes provide help, but it is not enough.

Alvin Parker is among community members who have tried to help.

“I would give them food from time to time. The situation with the wife, my family has visited her in the hospital and brought her Pampers,” the Esher resident told the Observer.

According to him, his neighbours are not well off, but those who are able to help the elderly couple sometimes give what they can.

Malcolm is now pleading for assistance with food and Pampers and a way to make more frequent visits to see his wife. Shoeless, he is hoping he will be able to use some of his April PATH payment to buy footwear he will don to make the one-hour trip to see Aida at Annotto Bay Hospital.

The kitchen, made of wood, is a separate structure outside. Meals are prepared on fires fuelled by wood. (Photo: Ingrid Henry)

Ronald Malcolm among his banana and plantain trees. Sometimes their produce is the only thing making up his meals.(Photo: Ingrid Henry)