Everette Armstrong shows off some of his work. - Photos by Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer

It's not often that someone who has faced great tragedy and turmoil comes out of it to be an inspiration to others. Everette Armstrong is one of those persons. This is his story.

Latoya Grindley, Gleaner Writer

JUST FOUR years ago, Everette Armstrong was making a comfortable living as a fisherman in Black River. After accumulating enough funds, he invested in a grocery shop, supplying to the small community in which he lived.

But in late 2003, Mr. Armstrong's life took a sudden and unexpected turn.

"A gunman came intomy shop and robbed me of all my money and then shoot me before him leave. Can you believe that him jump on my own bicycle and escape?" he said.

That one bullet left Mr. Armstrong confined to a wheelchair, paralysed from the waist down. This was the beginning of a new period in his life, a life that he has tried hard to come to terms with.

Hard transition

"I felt like all hope was gone because I couldn't do what I used to do. After I left the hospital, I had to go up by Mona Rehabilitation Centre to learn how to use the wheelchair and also how to keep proper hygiene. Trust me, it was a very hard transition."

After leaving the Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre, Mr. Armstrong spent time at numerous institutions before settling at his current abiding place - The Golden Age Home.

"The first place I went to was my mother's house because I couldn't really do much for myself. However, the house wasn't too convenient for someone in a wheelchair, so I eventually went to the Seaview Gardens Health Centre where I stayed for three months," Mr. Armstrong added.

He later moved on to the Missionaries of the Poor facility and then the Marie Atkins Shelter for the Homeless on Hanover Street, Kingston.

Love for drawing

It was there that Mr. Armstrong said he developed his talent and love for drawing, a gift he said was granted to him by a Higher Being.

"One night I was sleeping and I hear a voice say, 'Everett wake up, wake up, I want you to write these words'. So I get up and start to write in an exercise book and I start to write some prayers and then I start to cry and the voice say go on, continue. Right after that, I find myself starting to draw, something I never use to do before," he recalled.

His work soon caught the attention of visitors from overseas.

"The people dem well impressed and even buy my first two art pieces for three U.S. dollars and five U.S. dollars. I then invested in more paper and crayon to work on my newfound gift."

Move to the home

Mr. Armstrong said that an officer at the Marie Atkins home advised him one day to move on to the Golden Age Home, located in East Kingston. Mr. Armstrong dismissed the suggestion, telling the man that the Golden Age Home was only for old people who can't help themselves.

"I tell him seh him mad cause after I not old. Why dem would want to send me to a home where only old people deh?" he said chuckling away as if he was replaying the conversation in his head.

However, he later succumbed to the persuasion and has been a resident at the Golden Age home for the past 15 months.

Today, four years after the shooting incident that changed his life, Mr. Armstrong seems comfortable, if not content.

"Sometimes when visitors come, they will buy my work and then I just use that to buy my medication. This is what I am aspiring to do; to have more sales so I can comfortably afford all the medication I need," he said.

An ardent Christian who worships at the Duke Street United Church, Mr. Armstrong said the Lord is all the family and friend he needs.

Since being injured, he has lost contact with all his family including his children and his friends.

"I not close with my family anymore. I have five children. Two in Kingston and three in the country and only one has come to look for me and is only three times. I don't even know what happen to my siblings and I have quite a number of them," he said.

But, he has not let this get him down.

"When I was at my lowest, look what the Lord gave me! A talent I can benefit from and something I can use to take my mind off certain things. I mean, I could never draw and when I see some drawings I do now I wonder if is me really do dem," he said with a broad grin.

When asked if he would ever want to meet his attacker, Mr. Armstrong was quick to answer.

"In a heartbeat. I can now say I have forgiven him and if I should see him now I would talk to him. Remember God is good. Look at what I am able to do now. Sometimes I surprise myself. All I do right now is put that person in my prayers."

It is now Mr. Armstrong's goal to enrol at the School of Visual Arts, Edna Manley College.

"You can't stop hoping. Once you living you have hope and I have strong belief in the Lord and I know he is a miracle working God and he is always ready to lift you up. Because of that, I trust in the Lord that one day my dreams will come true."