Howard Campbell, Gleaner writerFor the past 18 years, Andrew's life has been dotted by 'what ifs'?
What if his father had been around, would he have stayed the right course? Would he have been shot four times? Would he still be living in crime-ridden Wilton Gardens, Kingston?
Those are questions the 36-year-old says he has asked himself several times.
He told The Sunday Gleaner that since his father went to the United States in 1987, his life has been anything but stable.
"Mi nuh grow wid nuh father, jus' my mother alone," said Andrew, leaning against a high-rise building in Wilton Gardens, a hardened community popularly known as Rema. "Mi know him still yuh nuh, but him nuh grow mi."
Andrew says his father, a
former postman, came from neighbouring Arnett Gardens.
He fathered two of his
mother's nine children but left for the United States while he and his younger brother were still in their teens. Little has been heard of him since.
"Mi nah really hate him still 'cause a mi father an' a him mek mi dey ya so, but him shoulda remember him youth dem," he said. "That's why nuff a the youth dem now a breed some girl an' gone lef' dem. That's why most a the youth dem nuh have nuh father."
Andrew, who is unemployed, bears the scars of the violence that has kept Rema on edge for a number of years. His left arm was amputated at the elbow in 1997 after he was shot during a drive-by attack in the community which is a matter of yards from Arnett Gardens, its long-time nemesis.
'Fatherless Crew'
Rema is home to several fatherless youth. There is even a group which calls themselves the 'Fatherless Crew' made up of youngsters who either lost their father to violence or imprisonment.
Twenty-two-year-old Kemar Stephenson's father was born and bred in Rema. He was killed in 1998 while on duty as a security guard in Portland and Kemar says the absence of a father
figure also hurt his development.
Kemar recently became a father and though he is currently unemployed, he is determined that his son will get the guidance the death of his father denied him. "Bwoy, mi jus' waan si him come out good," he said.
Andrew has fathered no children as yet, a rarity for a man his age in the inner-city.
He is adamant that if his father was around as he approached adulthood he would not have been drawn into 'certain things.'
"A nuff thing mi go through ... grievance inna yuh heart so yuh will do certain things," he explained.
