As Jamaica prepares to mark Mother’s Day, most mothers across the island will wake to bouquets of flowers, warm hugs and intimate family celebrations honoring their role. But for a small group of women displaced six months ago by the devastating Category 5 Hurricane Melissa, this holiday will unfold far from the comfort of their own homes, each day a quiet test of endurance after months of living in temporary emergency accommodation.
After spending half a year sheltering in converted classrooms at Petersfield High School in Westmoreland, these 16 families — totaling 41 people including dozens of children — were only recently relocated to a repurposed teachers’ cottage in Shrewsbury. Yet even amid the uncertainty of their displacement, the exhaustion of making do with too little, and the heartache of watching their children grow up in cramped, shared temporary spaces, these mothers have refused to break. Bound by shared faith, mutual support and an unshakable commitment to their children, they cling to the stubborn hope that next Mother’s Day will find them back in permanent homes, living with the dignity they once took for granted.
A visit from the Jamaica Observer on April 24 captured the quiet ingenuity with which these women transformed a space meant for learning into a makeshift home for their families. Desks built for student learning were repurposed as bed frames, tarpaulin cut to size served as privacy curtains, and mats were laid neatly at the foot of made-up beds, with every article of clothing folded and stacked in its own designated spot. One woman even playfully chided the reporter to avoid stepping on a decorative mat, a small, familiar touch of Jamaican matriarchal order that persisted even in chaos. Classroom corridors became open-air laundry lines, propped up with bamboo sticks to let the tropical sun dry hanging clothes. It was far from the ideal home, but the women carved out what normalcy they could, drawing on the resourcefulness that has long defined Jamaican community life.
For Tishane Haywood, a 30-something mother of six, three of whom — all under 10 — have lived with her in the shelter since the storm, the past six months have stripped her of nearly everything she built: her home, her livelihood, and the privacy of family life. But she says her children are the anchor that keeps her pushing forward, helping her set aside the trauma that Melissa unleashed on the island.
Even with barely any extra income, Haywood makes small, quiet sacrifices to bring her children moments of joy, setting aside what little she can spare to buy small toys to keep them occupied. “The strength that I get is just looking at my kids and knowing that they’re at peace and they’re happy, because if something do me right now, I know that no one’s going to love them the way that I love them, and no one’s going to take care of them the way that I take care of them,” Haywood told the Sunday Observer.
“It doesn’t matter how little they may be, just to see them have a smile on their face, even when I don’t have it, to say, ‘Here’s a juice,’ or something. When they get excited and happy, I feel good. They’re the reason I’m still here, they’re the reason that I’m pushing — just to see them happy. Even though they irritate me, and I tell you they do irritate me, but they’re mine, and they give me hope,” she added.
“Every time I wake up and hear my son say, ‘I love you, Mommy,’ it feels good. My daughter and I are the same person; we can’t agree because she’s my identical person when it comes to personality, but I tell her I love her, and she loves me, too. It’s good to know that somebody out there loves me. I went through trauma as a child growing up, and to have so many little people running around that love you, I feel like I’m a superwoman, because when it comes to them, nothing is impossible for me to do,” she shared, smiling as she spoke.
Haywood says she also draws enormous strength from the network of other mothers and grandmothers in the shelter, turning to their decades of experience for advice and encouragement when her own resolve wavers. “As a young mother, they teach me a lot. They teach me that I don’t have to abuse my kids verbally, because when I’m upset I’ll use my words. They teach me that I can talk to my kids, put them one side, and talk to them… It’s nice to know that you have other people who love your kids and care about your kids as much as you do,” she said.
For Haywood, Petersfield High School was never just a shelter — it was where she found the extended family she never had growing up. “Being around them makes me take comfort that I have a family that I never really had, because my people don’t get along, and we don’t agree, so to be around people that make me feel like I’m their own, I feel loved, and my kids feel loved,” she said.
Sixty-two-year-old Jennifer Anderson, a mother of eight with three of her adult daughters living with her in the shelter, is no stranger to hurricane displacement: she first sought emergency shelter with a 12-day-old daughter when Hurricane Gilbert tore through Jamaica in 1988. Now, 38 years later, that same daughter is once again living with her in temporary shelter after Melissa’s destruction.
Anderson recalls that in 1988, disaster aid reached affected communities far slower than it did after Melissa, noting that both government agencies and private donors moved far more quickly this time to deliver meals, clothing and basic supplies to displaced families. Though her three daughters in the shelter are adults capable of caring for themselves, Anderson has not stepped back from her role as matriarch: she still keeps their spirits up, prays with them, and carries the weight of their uncertainty even when she does not have answers.
“I have to be talking with them because sometimes they will ask, ‘Mommy, when?’ And sometimes I get irritated because I don’t know, but I have to just stay calm for them and say, ‘We are waiting on the Lord for the day to come,’ ” she said.
Anderson has been out of work since before the storm, having lost her job as a caregiver when the elderly woman she tended passed away. Two of her daughters have found part-time work, and the family is slowly working to rebuild their stability, but they have yet to find affordable permanent alternative housing. Night after night in the shelter, she lies on her makeshift bed beside her daughters, praying with them and talking through their plans for the future to keep hope alive.
“We have plans about how we are going to build our lives and what we are going to do after we leave here, so those things keep motivating us. We talk a lot about things and ask God to keep motivating us and helping us to do the things that we want to do for when we leave out here,” Anderson said. “Sometimes with my big daughter, I will kiss her, and I will tap her on the bed and say, ‘Don’t worry, man, everything will soon be okay,’ ” she shared.
Even as she prioritizes her children’s emotional and physical needs, Anderson carries her own quiet grief: she mourns the loss of her home, her privacy, and the small daily comforts that once made life feel stable. “I used to be at home, living comfortably. I would sit down at night, watch my TV, get my glass, and I drink my red wine and go to sleep, but I can’t do that anymore. Mother’s Day, I would cook and enjoy myself, and if I plan to go out, then I would go out, but now it’s nothing, I am just stuck here,” she admitted, a moment of defeat crossing her face before she regained her composure. She says she trusts God will see her family through this hardship.
“I can’t afford to sit here and be sad, because if I am sad then they are going to be sad. As a mother, you have to always show up for your kids, so I keep showing up for mine,” she said.
Like Haywood, Anderson draws immense comfort from the tight-knit community of displaced mothers in the shelter, proving the old adage that it takes a village to raise a child — even when the village itself has been destroyed by a storm. “We are good to each other. We share thoughts with one another and we cook with one another, and we share everything that we have. We chip in where we can to help out. We are a community in here,” she said.
In a message to all mothers facing hardship this Mother’s Day, Anderson encouraged other women to hold fast to their faith and avoid taking their frustration out on their children. “Don’t be angry and don’t take your anger out on the kids. You have to just pretend like everything is okay, even when you know it’s not okay, and ask God to protect and guide your kids so that they may live to have a better life,” she said.