Young mom and baby live in a car

For the last three weeks, Valene Lynch, 22, and her baby, Nyomi, have eaten their meals and slept at nights in the back seat of a blue Renault.

Unable to hold back her tears as she and baby Nyomi sat in the car yesterday, Lynch told Newsday: "Right now, I don’t even feel like a human being."

The mother is not married and both her biological and adopted mothers have died.

Lynch told her sad story to Newsday yesterday from the back seat of the car. Since she was 17 years old, she has been moving from place to place, begging for lodging and food.

Lynch said she found it difficult to gain employment.

Yesterday, Newsday found Lynch sitting in the car which is parked underneath a mango tree in the yard of the owner’s home. The young mother says she longs for a warm bed to cuddle and sleep with her baby at nights. For now, however, a piece of sponge covered by a weather-beaten sheet in the back seat of the car is baby Nyomi’s crib. Lynch sits next to her and sleeps. The car belongs to the husband of Maureen Rodriguez, who has known Lynch since she was a child. When Lynch showed up one night carrying baby Nyomi in one hand, and all her worldly possessions in the other, it broke Rodriguez’s heart. "I have nine children and the house is only two bedrooms," Rodriguez said.

"It really hurt me that night because I couldn’t keep them. But I gave her some food to eat and pampers and milk for the child." To her surprise, Rodriguez saw Lynch and baby Nyomi asleep in the back seat of the family car.

With a piece of sponge to make sleeping more comfortable, and using the front and rear dash-boards as shelves for her baby’s pampers, bottles and other items, Lynch yesterday said she feels at home.

During the day, Rodriguez opens her house to the mother and child. They use her bathroom facilities and watch television inside her home, situated a stone’s throw away from the car.

According to Rodriguez, "This is the best arrangement I can offer.

At least in the car she is getting shelter. And she gets food by me."

Poking her baby Nyomi playfully with a thumb, Lynch expressed gratitude to Rodriguez. "When it is raining," she said, "it is very uncomfortable."

And then it is often scary, the woman said, with people passing close to the car in the dead of night. "I am afraid they do something to me and the baby," Lynch told Newsday.

Rodriguez said she sought the assistance of the councillor for the district (Marabella West) Jennifer Marryshow. The woman said she has not received a response. Persons willing to assist Lynch and her baby can contact Newsday’s South office at 652-6533, 2592 or 8550.