WOMEN JOIN MAN IN LIVING UNDER BRIDGE

13 YEARS UNDER A BRIDGE

BENEATH the busy George Lee Boulevard in Portmore, St Catherine, the bridge above the Dawkins Pond is where Paul Grant, alias Satan, his dog and his two female companions call home.

For the past 13 years the bridge has been Paul’s only home which he has used to house several other homeless people, some of whom come from as far as Trelawny in western Jamaica.

There, underneath the thoroughfare, is a shed in its most primal form — items of clothing decorated three beds hoisted on stones on the bank of the waterway.

Paul, 53, told the Jamaica Observer that he had been living a stone’s throw from the bridge when he and one of his neighbours got into an altercation that landed them in court.

“Mi did build a little board house over by Portsmouth. One evening a lady a pass and she call mi, a talk to me. When she call me, the dog come right a mi foot come lay down, so mi say gwaan, mi soon come, and the dog go right a the doorway go lay down. The lady claim to say the dog bite her, which really, the dog never trouble her. She go out a Petcom and buy the gas and give her grandson and tell him say fi come burn down the house. Him call me three time and mi nuh answer. Him call me four time and mi say, name and number; weh you want? When him call me, him say, ‘P****, mi did ago shoot you.’ Mi say fire yuh best shot, but mek sure yuh nuh miss,” Paul continued.

“A right a the house side mi deh. Apart from the grandson, three more of them come. The first man pass, mi nuh trouble him. The second man pass, mi nuh trouble him. The third man pass, mi nuh trouble him. The fourth man wid di gun, as him a go pass mi drop the cutlass in his neck. A so comes mi come fi live ’round here,” Paul said, adding that the matter was brought before the court and the complainants told the court that he was a mad man and a police informant, and that they stoned his house and set it ablaze.

Paul said he was later acquitted after the judge told the complainants that they should have protected the “mad man”.

“The judge ask dem, ‘Weh him inform ‘pon yuh say?’ Dem cyaah talk, so mi tell di judge say dem tek weh mi sateen and come wid 13 bag a cement and lumber and wah mi fi keep it. Mi say, ‘Yuh a mad man? The only way mi ago keep dat, yuh affi show mi receipt, who sell you and where you buy it.’ And through mi nuh keep it dem burn down mi house,” Paul said he told the court.

At that time, Paul said, the complainants told the court that his dog was attacking the residents.

Paul reasoned that his character witness at the time told the judge that the only way the dog would have bitten them was if they had provoked it.

“So true dem wah mi do dem wrongs and mi nuh do it, dem burn down mi house,” Paul said.

A bridge for a shelter is not an option for most Jamaicans, but Paul said it has become the norm for him.

“Mi did go to the MP [Member of Parliament] and the fireman dem did come; that was 2007. And mi go by Food For The Poor and them send mi by the fire station and mi go deh. The chief say him a look and him nuh see nuh report but him will still look. Until now mi nuh hear nothing from dem,” Paul related as he sat on one of the beds beside Karen Scott, 26, while his other companion, Stacy-Ann Grant, 41, sat on a bucket.

Stroking Scott’s leg, Paul admitted to having intimate relationships with both.

While Scott has been living with Paul under the bridge for two years, Stacy-Ann, who is from Waterhouse in St Andrew, said she visits occasionally.

The mother of two, who said she lives with her relatives, reluctantly disclosed she gives her family a break whenever she visits her friends under the bridge.

Scott, who has no issue with the ‘sister wife’ relationship, said she has a good friendship with Stacy-Ann.

“The eye shadow weh mi have on, a she buy it fi mi,” Scott reasoned.

The mother of four told the Sunday Observer that prior to living under the bridge, she was in a relationship with one of her children’s father, but she ended it when he became abusive.

Scott, however, said her children were subsequently placed in State care.

Scott noted that even though she has relatives in Portmore, she prefers to stay under the bridge until she can find an alternative home.

“Mi nuh wah stay a mi family dem. Mi just want me own,” Scott said, adding that she does “day’s work” during the days while Paul is at work.

“Mi cut yaad all over the place,” Paul chimed in.

Like Scott, Paul too has sisters in Portmore, but said he rarely visits them.

“Mi sister weh mi follow live in Greater Portmore, she cuss mi all the while say mi won’t come weh dem deh. Mi nuh love nobody feed mi; mek mi nyam mi so-so food. My brothers and sisters dem know say mi renk like a chink enuh, dat is why them fret when dem nuh see me. Mi nah mek trouble wid nuhbody but dem fret when dem nuh see me,” Paul said

When the Sunday Observer asked Paul how he managed to have two companions under a bridge, he simply chuckled.