- NORMAN GRINDLEY/Staff Photographer
Homeless people along Barry Street in downtown Kingston yesterday.
Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter
A HUGE sign on the steel grill of the General Post Office on Barry Street in downtown Kingston blares 'No Parking' - but still a raggedy bunch of homeless people are spending their holidays here.
This Christmas wasn't so good.
One, two, three, four ... there are about ten people. Among them a lone woman. Her name is Rosalyn. Rosalyn Messam. She has a friendly face which lights up with hope as soon as she begins her tale of Christmases past.
It is simple.
"The treatment was better last year. Some of the people who came out here to give us food last year didn't come out this year," she said. But Rosalyn couldn't ask for more as some people still remembered her. She got a hot meal at church this morning. She isn't exactly homeless but she falls among the poorest and happens to hang out with the homeless.
THEIR STORIES
A huge bearded man sprawls on the concrete beside her. "That's Bigga, mi husband," she said. Bigga wheezes in the fly infested air. He has earned the title 'husband' because he protects Rosalyn from rowdy suitors. His companions look like crumpled waste under their sooty clothing. Rosalyn hands Bigga a rosary. "A long time him ask mi fi one. Mi get one fi him this morning down a Father Ho Lung church." She then turns to another nameless face and hands him crackers.
André Phillips hobbled near. He was hit by a car on Christmas Day but the driver didn't leave him to die. He was bandaged at the Kingston Public Hospital and sent back to the streets.
He is muttering something to Rosalyn but she can't make it out. He then pulls a pair of slightly worn slippers from his black scandal bag. "How much you want for it?" asks Rosalyn. He mumbles something unintelligible. Rosalyn takes the slippers and promises him $100.
One man is angry. "Don't tell them nothing if you don't get no money."
It's definitely harder this Christmas, says Rosalyn but, "Mi trust in God same way. It is the Almighty God why some people still carry food for us," she said.
