Uriel Rowe is blind and has only one leg but is not allowing his fate to dampen his spirit or stop him from praising God. - Photo by Athaliah Reynolds

Seventy-year-old diabetic Uriel Rowe recently lost one of his legs and is now unable to do most things for himself. Though this, coupled with his blindness and the fact that he can hardly find food, pay his utility bills or source money for his medical expenses, might be reason enough for anyone to live in a state of perpetual depression or hopelessness, it does not deter 'Brother Rowe', as he is affectionately called by members of his community in Cooreville Gardens, St Andrew.

For Rowe, every day is a new beginning and a new opportunity to give God thanks.

"Mi haffi thank God yah man," he told The Gleaner recently. "Everything wha happen to me done happen already, so mi just make mi self be happy and gwaan live."

Rowe lives in a two-bedroom house, which he shares with his son, who is hardly around. The house is bare, with very little furniture and the few pieces that could be seen were old, discoloured and falling apart. The walls of the house are dirty and faded, with just a few telling signs that it was once painted in a light shade of blue. But this doesn't bother Rowe, one bit.

"Before mi did start go blind inna 1996, mi did paint di house. From that it nuh paint again," he informed. "But what mi fi do? Mi nuh fret bout dat."

Rowe said he does not worry about food - not that he has it in abundance - because he believes the Lord will supply his needs.

"Anything mi get, mi wi eat it. Mi nuh craven, mi just thank God fi it," he told The Gleaner.

"Di only time mi really fret a when mi a eat and mi memba mi madda down a country and mi wonda to meself if she have nutten fi eat," Rowe confessed.

He said that he often thinks about his mother, who is now 90 years old and living in Manchester.

Rowe, being one of his mother's four living children, said he felt responsible for her well-being and often agonises over his inability to do anything to help her.

Rowe himself does not know how he would survive without the kindness of a few strangers and members of his church community.

Because he can no longer attend services at the New Haven Seventh-day Adventist Church, members of the congregation visit him each week, taking the church to him.

Compassion

Rowe believes the assistance he receives highlights the compassion that still exists in the hearts of Jamaicans and is a perfect example of how a community can come together for the betterment of one individual.

The 70-year-old man is often provided with food, clothing, a helping hand and listening ear from members of the church and his neighbourhood.

"When mi lose mi foot inna January gone, mi never bathe fi three months and three weeks, cause mi couldn't move and never know how fi get around," he confessed.

It was a woman from his church who came by and gave Rowe a bath for the first time in months. She then taught him a few skills such as how to get a chair into the shower so he can cleanse himself.

"When yuh blind it is a really hard life," he said. "Yuh at the mercy of any and everybody. Even yuh food, yuh don't know what yuh eating. But is not the end of the road, especially if yuh have good people to help yuh." he said.

athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com