Former market cleaner seeking help “ in any form it comes”

Sandra Monica Crooke, hypertensive, diabetic, partially blind, and with both feet bad, is seeking to get help from the authorities.

The 66-year-old Green Hill woman says she is in dire straits and needs some sort of intervention that will provide basic amenities.

Speaking to SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday, while bent over in the doorway of her home, Crooke said the “100 and something dollars” she gets from the National Insurance Services (NIS) on a fortnightly basis is not enough to take care of her basic needs.

Crooke said she was one of the first workers who took up a job at the Kingstown Market when it first opened and she worked there for a number of years until she began experiencing problems with her feet.

Crooke related that she was a cleaner and claimed that one day, water from a dirty mop dripped onto her feet and she caught an infection that made the damage to her feet worse; she said she was later unable to work and, as a result, fell into poverty.

“I want help, I need help, I want food, I get small (lost weight), and I never get no compensation, they not taking care of me.

“I built my house, I can’t fix it, it leaking and now is rain time,” the senior citizen told SEARCHLIGHT, while adding that her only help comes from her son who does gardening for a living.

She said that she is asking for help and will take it in any form it comes, but will like Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, to know of her plight because, “I don’t think he knows the state I in right now.”

Crooke said that even to stand to talk to SEARCHLIGHT was causing her “serious pain” as her feet are very problematic.

“I think I should be having somebody staying with me and taking care of me.

“Is not like long ago, people use to give you a banana or something, not now,” she stressed.

“I have sugar and pressure, my eyes them bad. Is like the whole body of me need help. If it wasn’t for that pretty shirt I seeing I wouldn’t even know someone is there. I can’t even see your face,” Crooke, a mother of four commented.

She said as well that she has to go to the hospital three days a week to change the dressing on her feet and her son usually takes her, but it is problematic to move around.

“I need food, I need shelter, now is rain time,” she added. She also related that the shooting death of her grandson Jamal “Crush Road” Clarke, is also taking a toll on her.

Clarke, of Green Hill fell victim to gun violence on Friday night, May 26, making him this country’s 20th homicide victim for 2023.

“I break down. I was to go dress the foot and I didn’t go,” Crooke revealed.