Hamilton

SEATED ON a stool in the bar she owns on 64 Gold Street in the South Side community of central Kingston, Rosalie 'Rosie' Hamilton wraps up a call on her Motorola cellphone and rests her back against the wall, preparing to bare her soul to this stranger who has invaded her space.

Today - Mother's Day - takes on a new meaning for Hamilton. Staring death in the face after being shot, she was saved by her daughter two years ago.

While waiting to hear her story, I observe everything - from the open drains with murky running water, the many paintings of 'fallen heroes' on the community walls, to the small gatherings of men and women sitting along the sidewalks.

Inside the small bar, the floors are polished in a bright red stain. The shelves are scantily stocked with bottles of beer and other alcoholic drinks. Staring at an amateur painting of a shapely naked woman on the wall, I imagine the joy it must bring to the men who pack the premises when the sun goes down.

encounters with death

I am brought back to reality by the voice of the soft-spoken Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillor, as she recalls her encounters with death.

"The first time I was shot was in 2005," she recounts. "I got four shots to the head; it's a miracle I'm still alive."

On the night of the incident, Hamilton had decided to take a taxi home. The driver, however, had to stop at his house on Oakland Road in Kingston. Unfortunately, he drove into a group of gunmen who had been awaiting his arrival. He was shot and killed on the spot.

Hamilton spent more than two weeks in hospital. "When I complain about the pain, the doctors would always say to me, 'Rosie, you have one thing to be thankful for, life, because it's very unusual for persons to get shot where you got yours and still survive'," she relates.

Hamilton says after the incident, she went into total isolation out of fear. "The trauma made me scared; the least little sound would cause nervousness," she tells The Sunday Gleaner.

Two years later, the JLP councillor and mother of five - four still alive - was again knocking at death's door. This time, the dark, cold monster had chased her as far as the gate to her home.

"I was sitting right under that tree," she says, as she points to a small tree growing from two car tyres painted green and white. "The guy just walk up and fire the shot. I feel something hit me right here and I say, 'Who fling the stone?' But when I look, I see the hole in my chest," recalls Hamilton.

daughter's assistance

Hamilton's 33-year-old daughter, Stacey-Ann Williams, rushed to her assistance, calling on a family friend to transport her to hospital.

Williams, who later joins the interview, says she will forever be grateful to God for sparing her mother's life.

"It hurt, but mi haffi thank God still, fi keep her, 'cause she could a gone," Williams says. She and her brother and sisters are planning to buy their mom something special for Mother's Day, not just to show their appreciation for her love, but for her life.

"To me, she is my mother and father. She struggle with us, she is everything you would want in a mother. She has sacrificed so that we could have a good life," Williams, the mother of four, says about her mom.

Hamilton, who lost a son last September, says her only wish for today is that her two younger children, 17-year-old Shani and 22-year-old Lorne, will graduate from school with sterling passes.

"One of my main objectives is to see young people, not just my own, educate themselves, because that's the only thing that can take them out of the poverty," she tells The Sunday Gleaner.

athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com