From Kaieteur News (Guyana)

KAIETEUR NEWS (GUYANA) – An 87-year-old woman who spent sleepless nights selling elastic in the city to ensure that her son had a comfortable life yesterday revealed how her only child repaid her.

Cybil Smith of Lot 278 West Ruimveldt, spoke about how her grandchildren threw water on her in the middle of the night while she was asleep and her son did nothing to help his mother.

“I does sleep on the floor and when they (grandchildren and daughter-in-law) passing, they kicking me and then, they does throw water on me while I am sleeping and say that I am stink,” the elderly woman claimed.

The woman said that she wholeheartedly accepted her son’s family into her home and they threw her out.

“They put me to sleep next to the dog outside and when the rain falls, my whole skin does get wet. Rashes coming out on my skin because of the dog I am sleeping next to,” Smith said.

The woman added that she was living in Alberttown but was forced to move when the house she was living in, was given to someone else.

“I searched and I searched for a place until I met with a woman and she said she has a house here and that’s when me and my son moved in here.

“My son started to get children and he asked me if his children’s mother could move in and I said yes,” Smith recalled.

According to the woman, from that day, her life took a turn for the worse. She said she endured years of abuse at the hands of her son’s wife and his three children.

“They took a bucket and hit me in my head and burst it. The neighbours have to give me food.”

The woman said that her daughter-in-law held her by her feet and dragged her down the stairs.

“They don’t know what is grandmother. They curse and beat me. They put me out of my own house and I have a son but he does nothing.

“I want to leave, I can’t take it anymore. My own son has his mother sleeping next to a dog and in the rain although she has a house.”

Yesterday, when Kaieteur News visited Smith, she was seen sitting on a bench in front of her house with her clothes stuffed in two bags. Neighbours related the daily horror in the elderly woman’s life.

“If we don’t give her food, she won’t eat. If you know what this old woman does go through. We tried to get her into the Palms but they full and we don’t know where to go to next,” one neighbour related.

Cybil Smith is pleading with the relevant authorities and the Minister of Human Services to assist in getting her into a home.

IMAGE: Cybil Smith

For more on this story go to: http://www.stlucianewsonline.com/caribbean-octogenarian-made-to-sleep-with-dog-sustain-beatings/#sthash.kZmi7H0J.dpuf