{"id":2590,"date":"2019-07-29T18:37:39","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T18:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2590"},"modified":"2019-07-29T18:37:42","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T18:37:42","slug":"four-blind-women-one-act-of-kindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2590","title":{"rendered":"Four blind women, one act of Kindness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alan Lewin\/Michael Nattoo<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, a family in Crowder district, Westmoreland, was thrust into the national spotlight after a mysterious phenomenon saw a mother and her three daughters all losing their sights. Despite the national attention, the family was still left to fend for itself in heartbreaking fashion, stumbling their way through their new realities, until last Thursday, July 25.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dave Brown, who was born in that community but migrated to Canada while he was still young, caught wind of the situation and was moved with compassion. Through tears, Brown set out on a mission to lighten the burden for the bewildered family, and reached out to several of his church members and coworkers for help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The home of the Baker family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That collective effort amounted to last Thursday being one\nof the most memorable for the four women in a while, with a barrel of goodies \u2013\nto include food items such as flour, cornmeal, cooking oil, cornflakes, Ensure\ndrinks, among others \u2013 being delivered to their home by Brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Derrick Baker, father of the three daughters, had to bear the sole responsibility of caring for the entire family. And with no steady source of income, Baker was beyond relieved when Brown gifted the family some much-needed funds to help with their expenses. Despite the gifts, however, Brown\u2019s visit revealed that there was much more to be done to assist the family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dave Brown, along with his team of good Samaritans, present food items to members of the Baker family.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am appealing to carpenters, plumbers, masons, handymen\nand any other person who is in a position to make this family\u2019s life more\ncomfortable,\u201d Brown shared. He went on: \u201cThey need materials such as building\nblocks, boards, cement, sand, stone, steel, more food stuff, as well as furniture\nand a number of other things.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown\u2019s plea for those items came against the backdrop of\nrealizing that despite the family living in a home together, their conditions,\nas well as the lack of resources, have contributed to the house being somewhat in\na state of disrepair. \u201cWhatever they can give to help this family will be\ngreatly appreciated,\u201d Brown added. \u201cI took a walk inside their house and I can\ntell you that they really need the help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amidst Brown\u2019s pleas for additional assistance for the family,\nother visitors poured out well-needed items to the family, as curious community\nmembers watched the grand show of kindness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brown\u2019s efforts were assisted by youth club community\nmember, Knollis Johnson, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GRATEFUL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to thank you all for this kind deed. We need all the help we can get from all the world, because all four of us are blind,\u201d shared Venicia Baker, one of the sisters who lost her sight two years ago \u2013 around the same time as her mother, Viris Lynch. The others \u2013 Vanessa Baker, who lost her sight 10 years ago, Shanell Baker, who lost hers four years ago, and the mother, along with two brothers who were there at the time of Brown\u2019s visit, were just as grateful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venicia further shared that they are still in the process of\nseeking medical help. \u201cWe are trying to get help from any doctor who may be\nable to restore our sights. We went to Montego Bay to meet with a foreign\ndoctor, who diagnosed us with glaucoma. Right now, we\u2019re just going to have to\nwait,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the two brothers, Derrick and Errol Jr., who were\npresent, they made their case for having someone buy them a bike that they can\nuse to assist the family. \u201cIf we get a bike, we can run bike taxi in the area\nso that we can assist with food and money on a weekly basis,\u201d they shared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, a family in Crowder district, Westmoreland, was thrust into the national spotlight after a mysterious phenomenon saw a mother and her three daughters all losing their sights. Despite the national attention, the family was still left to fend for itself in heartbreaking fashion, stumbling their way through their new realities, until last Thursday, July 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1269,2],"tags":[1419,743,1420,1421,1422,1423,30,29],"class_list":["post-2590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-news","tag-blind-women","tag-dave-brown","tag-glaucoma","tag-phenomenon","tag-western-jamaica","tag-westmoreland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2590"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2596,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2590\/revisions\/2596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}