Struggling mother dealt crippling blow

A St Ann mother says she is at her wit's end and is desperately seeking help from the public to care for her 15-year-old son, Jaydon Finnegan, who is paralysed from the waist down, following a freak accident in the parish in July last year.

Octavia Finnegan, 42, said that the incident that left her son injured is the latest in a string of incidents that has followed her family since 1991. That year, Octavia, her mom, Valrie, and her four sisters were asleep when their home was set ablaze. She lost three of her sisters to the fire but she, her mom and baby sister managed to escape. Octavia got third degree burns to her face, hands and legs .

Then, in 2007, Octavia's younger sister lost her life in a motor vehicle accident on the Llandovery main road, also in St Ann.

A distraught mother of five, Octavia said she is barely coping with the demands of being a single mother. Along with the humongous task of taking care of Jaydon, she has to fend for another disabled child, her 20-year-old son, Tajay Stephenson, who is autistic.

"Sometimes I am just angry, irritable and easy to lash out on people, and it really saddens me. They say you must not question God, but sometimes me cry and ask God why. What have I done, what has my family done, why all these calamity? Why all these calamities one after the other? Sometimes I look at myself and say because of my scars people see me and mistreat me. I believe that without my scars I would have reached further in life," she said.

Octavia believes getting help from the public to help her care for Jaydon, who she said was an 'A' student at Ferncourt High School in Claremont, St Ann, would ease a lot of her burden.

"I need monetary help to find him like food and to help with diapers. Now it is going to be difficult for me because I am trying to get him in Mona Rehab and if they accept him he would stay up there, but I would have to facilitate things for him weekly and give contributions to where he is staying and so forth," she said on Sunday when talking to THE STAR over the telephone.

"To tell the truth, I am not handling the situation that good because the other day I got sick out badly with my nerves. It is the best of me now, Iam very sad. I am a single mother, his father is not there for him, and I am not in a job now because of my injuries, so it is very hectic for me," she said.

Persons wishing to assist may contact Octavia Finnegan via telephone at 876-237-0677