A seven-member St Michael family are now looking for somewhere to call home after being evicted yesterday from the house they have occupied for most of their lives at Medford Land, Dayrells Road.
Randica Johnson, 30, a Vincentian by birth, told the DAILY NATION that she and her six Barbadian-born children were put out on the streets by her mother, Alice Cumberbatch, along with their possessions.
When a NATION team visited the area, four of the young children were playing ball and having fun seemingly unaware of the gravity of the situation their mother was facing.
Johnson said that for years she and her mother, who lived mainly in New York, were not on the best terms, but she was still allowed to live in the house with her children.
“This [dilemma] all came about because she asked me to pay a phone bill and I did not. Instead, I took what little money I had and bought clothes and school supplies for my children to go back to school next week.”
She added: “This is my mother who brought me to this country when I was a little girl that did this to me and her grandchildren. Would you believe she even took back all the things she brought for the kids, even down to the shoes, toys, clothes. Right now I don’t have anywhere to sleep, me and my kids. We had to beg a friend to allow us to bathe and make sure the children had something to eat since I am not in position to cook for them.”
Johnson said she had contacted the Welfare Department but had not received any assistance.
“I don’t want the Child Care Board to take my kids and place them in any home. I need somewhere for me and them so I can be a mother to them. I do hairdressing but I just need some where for me and my kids to call home,” she said.
When contacted at her Tweedside Road, St Michael residence, Cumberbatch would only say: “I don’t want to hear anything from no NATION.”
