LIFE IS SO HARD for Tara Alleyne that some mornings, the only thing she and her son can have for breakfast is hot water.
And on a few of those days, they have hot water for lunch and dinner as well.
This is just one of the wrenching challenges faced by this once independent, 28-year-old single mother since a vehicle accident on Prescod Boulevard, Bridgetown, on March 17, 2013, left her seriously injured and claimed the life of teenager Rachel Pilgrim.
She is now partially disabled with a severe limp after breaking her right femur (thigh). She now must use a cane.
After three operations her condition has not improved much. She is now awaiting a fourth.
In the interim, Tara cannot work, her meagre savings have long disappeared, and she must now rely on the Welfare Department and well-meaning individuals for assistance.
It’s a far cry from the fun-loving, outgoing person Tara was when she worked and took care of herself and her son. As an attractive young woman, disability and death were the farthest things from her mind in 2013. Disability was for the elderly, she used to think.
Now, suffering with physical pain and mental anguish over an uncertain future, Tara wants young people to realise how swiftly life can change for the worse and forever.
“Nobody seems to think that this is something that can happen to them. [People] watch you so hard and make you feel so uncomfortable,” lamented the Goodland Park, Christ Church resident.
This discomfort, coupled with having to worry about where the next cent will come from for food and bills, has taken a further toll on her health. Her formerly smooth facial skin is now full of blemishes, while her once generally flat stomach is often bloated.
“I went into town with my girlfriend who is 21 and some people were asking if I was her mother. You could imagine that? I nearly tripped,” exclaimed Tara. “They had to be looking at my cane,” she surmised, mustering a sense of humour.
She explained a doctor at a polyclinic told her complications were triggered by tremendous anxiety and depression.
For Tara though, it underscores frustration about her condition and the impact it has been having on her son, Rashad.
The teen has suffered every step of the way with his mum, including missing school or getting there late as he had to look after her.
“I was 13 years old when my son was born and I not only had to grow up, but make sure he doesn’t lack for anything because he did not ask to be here. . . . Therefore I tried not to let him suffer because of me, so I worked and made sure everything was there. . . . I cannot do that now,” said Tara, close to tears.
“Don’t care how hard life was for us, he never had to go through hardship the way we have to go through it now that I can’t do it on my own. . . . I don’t think he deserved this,” she said.
This driving desire to take care of herself and her son and stop relying on handouts led to Tara constantly badgering her doctor to allow her to work. He granted her wish as long as the job did not involve standing.
Tara quickly got a job at a call centre. To get there she walked from the Fairchild Street bus terminal to the Harbour Road five days a week.
It was a painful trek but so determined was Tara that she got into the City at least two hours before her shift so she could take an hour to walk to work and the next one to rest before starting on the job.
After three months though, the constant painful swelling of her leg led the doctor to call a halt to her job until after the next surgery. “Up to now I have not got a date for that so I can get better,” she said.
What has her puzzled about the delay is that Trevor Kent, chairman of the Kent Group of Companies, donated over $40 000 worth of equipment to the Orthopaedics Department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital last June after hearing about her predicament. She thought by now she would have benefited from his generous gift.
“To be honest, I feel as if I am sinking. . . . If I was working it would take [away] the stress of just being home not being able to do the things that I am accustomed doing for me and my son,” Tara said.
