SOME DADS NEED TO TAKE A PAGE!!

Horace Fisher, Gleaner Writer

Six years ago, May Pen resident Conroy Nelson experienced the happiest time of his life when his common-law wife gave birth to twin daughters Alicia and Alisha; however, within a year, his happiness quickly turned to sorrow when the girls’ mother walked out, leaving Nelson with the responsibility of caring for the two girls.

Nelson told Rural Express that he was out job hunting and came home to find his then one-year-old twin girls abandoned, dirty, hungry, and crying. After bathing, feeding, and putting both girls to bed, he broke down and cried at the enormity of his unexpected responsibility.

“All a now me can’t believe say she just walk out and leave dem on me like that. When me reach home that evening and find them alone, crying, me a tell yuh di truth, me couldn’t help it but to burst into tears, my youth,” Nelson recalled.

After the initial shock, Nelson immersed himself into what has now become a comfortable role as a single father.

‘Daddy Johnny’, as he is affectionately called, admitted that the task is sometimes daunting, especially with both girls being asthmatic.

“Sometimes it’s not easy as a single father to care for two girls, especially when they are sick, but I have no regrets. They are my pride and joy. Right now, a just me alone who have to cook, wash, clean, bathe, comb hair, and put food on the table for them,” he said.

“As a matter of fact, whenever I send them to comb their hair and I don’t like how it look, I pull it out and comb it over myself because I have learned to comb hair as good as any woman,” Nelson bragged.

UNEXPECTED MOVE

The single father recalled that his common-law wife was constantly complaining that the girls were too much for her, but he never dreamed that she would actually turn her back on the family.

Since caring for both girls, he has understood the stress she was undergoing.

“Mi kind of understand di stress she was going through, but that is no excuse to run left your youth dem, nuh true?” he asked.

The so-called ‘Super Dad’ credits his adorable daughters for radically changing his life and, in the process, saving him from a life that would have been less than wholesome.

“I am certain if it wasn’t for Alisha and Alicia, me would a dead long time already. Since dem born, me just drop certain things and cut out the foolishness, and me have a whole heap a friends who drop out (got killed), and I could be one of them,” Nelson reflected.

The proud dad, who does a number of odd jobs to put food on the family’s table, has become increasingly concerned that the twins have outgrown his one-room rented apartment and said a Food For The Poor house would be a dream come true for the family.