‘I am blessed that I found her’ - Woman has unbreakable bond with child she found in Coronation Market 32 years ago

Rose Chambers was walking through Coronation Market in Kingston when she made a startling discovery. The year was 1988 and Chambers had just finished working, and was going home.

"I was going through the market with two other girls and when I looked, I just see the baby put down with a bag of clothes on the concrete. Me and the two girls bring her to Denham Town Police Station and I handed her over to the policeman, and the baby start stretch out to me and start cry. The police just say 'take her back, is your baby'."

Chambers, who had a son and a daughter at the time, was also responsible for taking care of her brother, but when the baby held on to her, she fell in love.

Speaking with THE WEEKEND STAR from her home in New York, in the United States of America, Chambers said she kept the child, who she called Lisa.

"She was about four months old and wasn't creeping or anything. I throw away the bag of clothes that she came with, although they were really nice clothes, and the rest of vendors gave me some pretty baby clothes for her. Everyone loved her," Chambers said.

But the decision about whether she would keep the child was not entirely up to Chambers. She had to cross a legal hurdle. However, as she explained, instead of going over the obstacle, she decided to go around it. Chambers said arrangements were made for her to take the baby to the Family Court but once she was told by curious onlookers that there was a high possibility that she may not get to keep the child, she slipped out of the courthouse, never to return.

With another mouth to feed, Chambers said she found additional ways to make an income and began selling bag juice and sweeping the streets at nights. She used that money to throw partners, which helped her to build a house for her family.

Chambers said word got around that she had 'baby Lisa' and she eventually met the child's father, who she said told her that he thought the baby was with his babymother's relatives in another parish.

Her biological mother

"I told him that I would give him back his daughter but he told me to keep her and bring her birth certificate to me. That was when I found out what her correct name was and stopped calling her Lisa. He used to always visit her and would take any little thing him have. Sadly, dem kill him after," she said.

She said Lisa later met her biological mother, who she keeps in contact with. However, Chambers and her daughter share an unbreakable bond.

"I love that girl with all of my heart and I am blessed that I found her. I also have another daughter that isn't biological and I name her Mellissa. I have three biological children and I love all of them equally," she said.

Chambers' touching story comes amid news that a newborn baby was found abandoned in a market in downtown Kingston. Scores of persons have expressed an interest in taking the child into their homes.

"I know that if I was in Jamaica I would make an attempt because I know I would love that child with all my heart," Chambers said.

Lisa, when contacted by THE WEEKEND STAR, declined to speak about the matter, stating that she had not shared the story of her past with key members of her immediate family.