LAST CHRISTMAS, Ashley Anderson was able to play with her toys, but this Yuletide season, the eight-year-old is lying in her bed at the Bustamante Hospital for Children, slowly recovering from a gunshot would to the head.
The shooting occurred on September 5 at Ashley's home in downtown Kingston. Since then the family has been distraught, as she now responds only through gestures.
"The only fun for Ashley is Christmas. She always looks forward for the day to come," lamented Kadian McIntosh, the child's grieving mother.
Toys mere souvenirs
Ashley has been showered with toys from various good Samaritans, including Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie, but they have been left by her bedside as souvenirs.
"She gets toys, but she can't hold them and play with them. She just lay down and look," McIntosh said. "Ashley would be looking forward to having Christmas dinner with her grandmother in St Thomas and dressing up and taking photos."
This Christmas though, food is not an option for Ashley as she is being fed through tubes. However, her mother will spend the day reading stories and singing to her.
The bullet was lodged in Ashley's skull and the fragments scattered in her brain.
Her confused mother stuttered as she tried to explain the trauma she was going through.
"I cry day and night; I am just weak and depressed. I am not getting any rest and I can't do anything because I can't focus, but I get a lot of support and I am very thankful," McIntosh told The Gleaner.
McIntosh's blood pressure keeps escalating and her feet become swollen at times, forcing her to be frequently absent from her job. She is not paid for these missed days, which adds to the financial burden of taking care of her ill daughter.
Thank god she's alive
Despite the struggles, McIntosh thanks God her daughter is alive.
"With the shot that she got, we are still lucky to have her alive. She could have been buried by this time and all we would have to look at is her grave," she said.
Ashley's traumatised father, Jason Anderson, who makes the hospital chairs his bed at nights, sighed continuously as he related his feelings to The Gleaner.
"Christmas without my daughter will be no Christmas at all. If she could correspond in the fullest, I would feel much better. I hope I will have back my peach in better condition soon," he said tearfully.
Quickly containing himself, he added, "But God give no one more than what they can bear."
Jason's hopes are high that his last child of two will live to talk and smile again, as he pleads for financial assistance for her to travel overseas to do surgery to remove the bullet.