Mother of five disabled by gunman’s bullet

On that fateful February night earlier this year, Petrina Gordon, her five children, her father and her common-law husband all retired to bed. Some time after midnight, an explosion of gunfire shattered the night’s calm. The target was Gordon’s home, which sits beside the abandoned railway track near the May Pen bridge in Clarendon. The house is shrouded by a thick cluster of trees at the back window and this provided the perfect vantage point for the attackers to strike.

“I was in my sleep and I hear some shot. I sat up and I hear plenty more shots going on. Around five minutes later, all shot close off and I hear nothing more,” Gordon’s dad, 65 year-old Alvin Gordon, who was sleeping in an adjoining room, told All Woman.

Twenty-eight year-old Gordon, however, had not heard the clatter of gunfire which sent three bullets into her lower back. Neither did she feel any pain. Instead, she was jolted from her sleepy by an intense numbness in her lower body ú the first sign that she would be indefinitely paralysed.

“Me nuh hear nutten. It come like a God wake me up…me numb up…When me wake, me see like mi can’t move and mi feel mi blouse. When mi look down on it, mi si blood and mi si mi kids dem stand up and mi nuh si mi baby father in a di house,” she recalled. After realising that she had been shot, the former meat spice vendor said she quickly yanked up her sleeping baby girl, Natalee, and pushed her under the bed. But she panicked when she saw her 3 year-old son, Anthony, smeared by blood and obviously in pain. Horrorstruck, Gordon screamed frantically. Anthony had been shot in his right arm.

“When I saw my son, mi likkle 3 year-old son eye roll over, mi start scream…mi think mi son did dead and a di one son mi have”, she said, her voice laden with relief that the nightmare has passed.

Gordon told All Woman that she did not think that the gunmen had wanted to kill her entire family. According to her, they had come for her partner, Leroy Malcolm, who was also shot in the stomach during the incident. She said that Malcolm had had a disagreement with a friend and a threat had been made against his life.

“Mi get fi find out se a him owna friend…him threaten him, but Junior (Leroy) never talk. Is like him never tek it serious,” Gordon said.

During the past several months, however, Gordon said that coming to terms with her paralysis has been agonising. Wrestling with bouts of depression, anxiety over the unresponsiveness of her shrivelled legs and the discomfort of bedsores, the young woman said that it had taken a toll on her emotional well-being. Especially hard to accept is the challenge her physical limitation is placing on her parenting abilities.

“Most a di time mi miserable and mi consider on it because mi usually walk, jump round and look about mi pickney dem. When mi see mi really can’t move and when mi feel all the pain,” her voice trailed off, heavy with emotion as she glided her fingers down her crippled legs.

She said that she had managed to hold those feelings at bay because of the strong emotional support provided by her relatives and friends. Constantly encouraged by her parents to pray and place more faith in God, Gordon said that they had lifted her spirits.

“Mi mother and mi father talk to mi and seh mi fi stop di crying cause mi only a mash down miself. My friends weh come look fi mi, they encourage me a lot,” she said.

Her father in particular, she said, has been her bedrock. Since the incident, Alvin Gordon has assumed the bulk of the domestic responsibilities, helping his daughter with the demanding tasks she can no longer manage. When All Woman visited the house, he had just completed the Sunday evening meal for Gordon and her two daughters.

Though Gordon gives credit to her common-law husband, too, the disabled woman says her father has adjusted uncomplainingly to the new role that he now plays.

While her mom does not live with her, her regular visits, the attention and warmth she shows her grandchildren, have been highly appreciated by Gordon.

She told All Woman that she was still clinging to the hope that one day she will walk again.

“From me get shot until now, me neva tell miself se mi naa go walk again. Mi believe se mi a go walk again. Mi nuh give up. Whosoever come do mi so, don’t have a chick or a child and mi have my five child to live for. So father God going help mi up on mi feet again. Mi just a wait on the time,” she declared emphatically.

After completing surgeries, Gordon did a month at the Mona Rehab Centre in Kingston, but her poor financial standing has prevented her from accessing further therapy. The medical costs associated with treatment at the May Pen Hospital, the Kingston Public Hospital and the Rehab Centre has soared to over $100,000, she told All Woman. The costs of her regular bed sore treatment and her painkillers run into the thousands and is a major strain on the family’s limited finances. Her partner’s carpentry skills have not yielded enough to assist with her treatment.

Gordon’s father is also a casual labourer and he, too, cannot afford the costs associated with Gordon’s treatment.

However, he tells All Woman that he has thrown his weight behind soliciting help for his daughter. On several occasions he has officially requested help from a business place in May Pen to no avail. But despite the financial setbacks and the pain which throbs in her legs, Gordon said that she was grateful to God that she was not killed. She told All Woman that she was optimistic and looked forward to the day when she would break free from the wheelchair’s confinement.