Maas Clemmy on his favourite rock overlooking what's left of his home. - Norman Grindley /Deputy Chief Photographer

The man clutched his Bible tightly in his right hand and used his left index finger to wipe a trickle of sweat from his forehead. His weather-beaten cap cast a shadow over his face and his eyes seemed tired.

"Yes, woman is my downfall!" he shouted. "Is woman mek mi come from high up and fall to nothing. Dem is pure crosses."

He was sitting on a large rock near the steps of what's left of his house in the hills of rural St. Catherine. A place called Crawl Pen. The windows of the house were almost all broken and the roof was nothing more than a few pieces of rotting wood and rusty zinc.

Now, of course, there are many heartbroken blokes who would say that women have caused them some distress in their lifetime. However, not many of them claim to be able to provide detailed evidence of a woman leading to their demise.

Meet Clement McCalla, known around the Crawl Pen community as Maas Clemmy. Now Mass Clemmy is one bitter fellow and when photographer Norman Grindley and I stopped by to see him recently, he was quick to point out why.

Neva you fall in love

"People ask mi why mi so ignorant. You see how mi place bruck down? Is all because of woman and dem cantankerous ways," he said. The man pulled aside a piece of sponge that was at the door of the house and then looked me squarely in the eyes. "You is a young man. You mek sure tek mi advice. Neva you fall in love, for woman will bring you down to nothing," he said. I looked across at a bucket on the floor used to collect water from the leaking roof and I swallowed hard.

"You remember what Maas Clemmy tell you," he said.

We asked Maas Clemmy to tell us what has now become the well known story of how he came to this lowly state.

He sighed and then gestured for us to have a seat.

The story goes back to the early 1970s, when Maas Clemmy was a thriving farmer in the community. He claims to have been quite the looker and so was flocked by many adoring females. "Hee Hee, dem did love me," he chuckled. But Maas Clemmy was in love with only one woman and he asked her to move in with him. "Everything was good and tings did a gwaan fi mi. Mi buy mi car and fix up di house," he said.

But then, according to Maas Clemmy, things took a steep dive when after 14 years of waking up to the same face every morning, he decided to tell his female friend that he wanted to break up with her. "Mi seh! Is pure crosses from that time!" he said. Maas Clemmy said the woman turned into something of a stalker and wouldn't let him have a moment's peace. "Everytime mi carry a different lady home with mi, she would come and fling pure stone pan di roof top till di woman frighten and leave," he said.

Stone thrower

Finally, Maas Clemmy could take it no more, so he went up to confront the stone thrower at her house which is just down the road from where he lives. "Mi ask har what she up to. Di woman go police station go tell dem seh mi threaten fi kill her. Den she go tell everybody in the community seh mi is a obeah man," he said. Maas Clemmy said that since then, all his friends have turned against him. With no friends, he had no help when his crops did not come in and so his once thriving farm went south. He soon found himself with no money to insure his car or to repair his house. The car is still parked in his driveway, but completely destroyed from being parked for so long.

"But I should have known. About a month before I run away dat woman I follow my friend to a reader woman in May Pen. When I find out that is just 50 cent to get a read up, mi decide fi get one myself," Maas Clemmy said. "Di reader woman say dat great tribulations will befall mi if mi break up wid mi woman. See it deh now. A pure crosses really deh pan mi," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

Now, Maas Clemmy spends his days reading his Bible on a giant rock in front of his house. He knows the book so well that he can recite entire chapters off the top of his head. At one point, it seemed like he wouldn't stop.

Learned to be alone

"Mi read my Bible to kip weh crosses. Is alright though, for I have learned to be alone at this place. People too evil, so mi better off wid me and mi Bible alone," he said.

Maas Clemmy said he thinks that hardships have been at his doorsteps for so many years because he did not sacrifice a pigeon when he was younger. He showed us a Bible passage that he said proves that.

"But God testing me to see what I have inside. Is alright though, as long as mi stay far from woman mi will be quite alright. Woman is where di problem rests!" he said.

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