Daily breadfruit diet for ailing granny, 6 kids

MONICA FELIX, 53, who suffers from cirrhosis (hardening of the liver) has one simple wish for Christmas. Her wish? Not that she can undergo expensive surgery which could save her  life, but rather, that her six young grandchildren could have a hot meal on a daily basis. Doctors told Felix she could be living on borrowed time and it was urgent for her to undergo surgery. However, surgery is not this spunky woman’s main priority. “These children are my life and they are my main priority now,” Felix said. However, Felix fears she may be losing her battle to ensure her grandchildren do not go hungry. “There are days we only eat roast breadfruit and sometimes I even go hungry to make sure whatever little food I have, goes to the children. It hard, real hard,” Felix told Newsday as the tears welled in her eyes.

Explaining her tribulations, Felix said that 18 months ago, her daughter Marcia Felix left their San Francique, Penal home and never returned — leaving her (Monica) with the responsibility of taking care of Marcia’s six children, one of whom is a baby. Searches by the police and relatives turned up nothing and according to Monica, her daughter has never returned home even to see the children. “I love all my grandchildren and I don’t want to give them up. But I am appealing to someone to help me please,” Felix pleaded. Before her husband died 12 years ago, Felix said, she sold vegetables and crafts at a stall. But since then she has not been working because of her medical condition. Desperate that her innocent grandchildren not go hungry for too long, Felix said she put away her pride and went to several charitable organisations and churches to beg for handouts, food and clothing.

“I have no food for the children. There is a breadfruit tree in the yard and I try to sell some breadfruit and use some to cook for the children. Almost everyday we eat breadfruit and sometimes I burst a coconut and steam the flesh...this is all the food we have. Sometimes I don’t even eat because I want to make sure all of them get,” Felix cried. During the interview at her dilapidated wooden Penal home on Thursday, one of Felix’s grandchildren, four-year-old Zion, innocently asked this reporter, “allyuh come to fix we house?” Felix said: “Since moving to this house 33 years ago, no repairs have ever been done. There are no fixed doors or windows and the floorboards  are rotting. “I had to put an old piece of carpet on the floor, so the children would not fall through the holes”. 

As tears rolled down her face, Felix said it pained her to see her grandchildren sleeping on the damp, cold floor because she did not have a bed for them to sleep on. Only one burner on her old stove is working and even the stove has to be propped up with stones. “Is magic I doing to keep my family alive. I praying that in the spirit of Christmas, I could get some kind of help so the children could at least see a happy Christmas Season,” she added. Felix said apart from her grandchildren, whose ages range from 18 months to 12 years, she also has four adults (her children) between the ages of 19 and 30, living with her. However, only one of them was, “making a little hustle”. The last one, Mario, 19, attends Servol Life Centre at La Romaine.

Felix said she recently went to the Social Welfare Office in Siparia to seek assistance but was told Government was not releasing any funds right now. “I don’t know where to turn. It hard for me to see my family suffering this way but I don’t know what to do,” she said. Felix said four of the children are attending the San Francique Presbyterian School where they receive breakfast and lunch from Government’s School Feeding Programme. However, when school closes for the Yuletide Holidays, she will have to find ways to provide meals during the day for the four. For Felix, a proud woman, failure is not an option and she said she was determined to survive and see that her grandchildren survive as well. However, she admitted, “I need help...it hard to get by given my circumstances”. Is there anyone out there willing to help this woman and her children? Time will tell.