Bybrooks family sees hope in rising walls - Concrete house being constructed for St Elizabeth hurricane victims

STAR Writer

For more than 30 years, 54-year-old Denise Miller has found comfort, family, and identity in the small Bybrooks community of St Elizabeth. It was the place where she raised her children, celebrated milestones, and planted roots deep into the local soil.

But Hurricane Melissa blew all of that away two weeks ago. After heeding disaster officials' warnings to seek safer shelter, her family of 11 -- seven children and four adults -- returned the day after the storm's passage, only to be confronted with complete devastation.

Miller said she will never forget the moment she saw that the house was flattened.

"When me see it with mi own two eyes, mi nearly drop dung. Everything flat a grung. The place just look mash up," she said.

The family scrambled for shelter. The only place of refuge was a small shop, constructed of board and zinc, which was spared from the storm's fury.

"My daughter have a baby one week before the storm. Mi haffi mek she kotch up in the little shop, because a it alone did standing," Miller said.

"The rest a we sleep out here so inna the cold," she added.

In the days that followed, Miller and her family took refuge under a makeshift house, constructed from board that was salvaged from the house which was blown down. A tarpaulin and old zinc were used as its roof.

Today, on the very spot where her wooden home once stood, concrete walls are beginning to rise -- a symbol of renewal she desperately clings to.

Miller, who shares the home with 10 relatives, said she is grateful for every act of kindness; but the support has stirred tension she never imagined.

But the storm's devastation wasn't the only pain Miller was carrying. As relief teams began offering assistance, some neighbours allegedly turned bitter.

"A lot of things going on right now, because people a come against we as if we don't need the help," Miller said.

"Dem come at the top of the road a trace we off, like a we cause it fi our house blow down," she added.

Even before the hurricane struck, Miller's heart was already shattered. Just one week earlier, her four-year-old granddaughter, Shavi, died from a brain tumour. The family has not yet been able to lay her to rest.

"She nuh bury yet, so that is a next big money we don't have," she said, her voice breaking.

"Every day mi get up, mi cry, because mi lose one, and mi nah lose no more if me can help it," she sobbed.

Shavi was the only child of Miller's son, who lives in Montego Bay, St James, and was also hard hit by Hurricane Melissa. Grief, loss, and uncertainty are now a shared weight the family must carry together.

Despite everything, the family, who mostly farm and sell peanuts for a living, is trying to remain strong and grateful.

"It feel overwhelming, but we give thanks. I was worried for the kids, 'cause even my baby catch cold. While we can tough it out, dem can't," said Shauna-Kay McFarlane, the mother of a one-year-old.

Her sister, Cherry-Ann McFarlane, gently rocking her two-week-old son, Theo, agreed softly. "We just a hold the faith," she said.

And faith, Miller believes, is finally being rewarded. The new concrete structure is taking shape quickly. Builders are using river water to speed along the work, constructing a two-bedroom house with a hall, while reconstructing a unit from what remains of the old board building.

Miller said the turning point came when Zuleika Jess, member of parliament for St Elizabeth North Eastern, visited and stepped in.

"We thank Miss Jess because she come, she see, and she make the work start. It mean the world to we," Miller said.

As the walls rise and her family gathers around the promise of a new beginning, Miller is holding tightly to hope.

"We just want peace and everybody who [suffered] loss get a little chance fi start over."