Disabled senior seeking assistance after multiple setbacks

In March 2021, 76-year-old Blandie Edwards-Rodney's world turned upside down after her husband Anthony Rodney was gunned down in Lionel Town, Clarendon.

She said Anthony, who was a farmer, was her provider and since his passing, she has fallen on hard times. Making matters worse, she lost one of her legs to diabetes this March.

"Dem shoot him when him leave fi go for him goats over a churchyard. Dem shoot him about seven times. Him use to raise white fowl and goats and after dat, everything just get bad for me. Mi fret and cry for him every day and is like mi can't see mi way through," she said. The senior citizen said that in addition to diabetes, she also suffers from a heart condition and hypertension. She said that Anthony died leaving goats but they were all stolen earlier this year when she let them out for feeding.

"Seventeen goats mi did end up with and mi did a plan to sell dem but dem tief dem off a day before dem sell. Mi did manage to sell some of the chickens and the rest dead off," Edwards-Rodney said. She told THE WEEKEND STAR that she sometimes receives assistance from one of her 10 children. But otherwise she sometimes has to go without food.

"Mi nuh really have anyone a give me anything and mi can't work now. Mi have a wheelchair and a stick fi help mi move around but a eight times mi fall down with the stick. Is like mi nuh get used to using it. One of my daughters who is overseas help mi out sometimes but when she don't, mi have it really hard," she said.

Edwards-Rodney said that she thought long and hard about seeking the public's assistance but after much thought, decided to put her pride aside. She stressed that receiving food items and completing her bathroom would make her life less burdensome.

"Sometimes I don't have anything to eat. Mi alone live but mi granddaughter come help mi out when she can, but she live far and have a young baby. Is a outside toilet mi use and it hard now because a one foot mi have. So mi would really want to build a inside bathroom. Mi start build it but mi nuh finish yet. Is a pail mi have to pass mi waste in a night-time. So if anyone could just help mi out with some food and to finish build the bathroom, mi woulda glad," she said.

Persons wishing to assist Blandie Edwards-Rodney may contact her at 876-404-7541.