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Thursday, July 10, 2025

A son’s silent struggle ... Caring for mom, but clinging to hope

by

17 days ago
20250623

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

On a windswept hill­top at Caratal Road, Her­mitage Vil­lage, Clax­ton Bay, the view stretch­es in­to the dis­tance—but for 30-year-old Khem­raj Ram­per­sad, it brings no peace.

Every day, he wakes up at 4 am, lis­ten­ing to the qui­et groans of his 69-year-old moth­er Hasi­na Ho­sein, who suf­fers from ear­ly de­men­tia, rheuma­toid arthri­tis and fre­quent seizures.

For years, Ram­per­sad has been her on­ly care­giv­er.

Once a trained ad­min­is­tra­tive ac­coun­tant, graph­ic artist and so­cial me­dia man­ag­er, Ram­per­sad gave up his ca­reer to care for the woman who once cared for him.

Their wood­en home is in­com­plete—a struc­ture his late fa­ther, Harold Ram­per­sad, be­gan build­ing near­ly a decade ago. The roof leaks. There is no prop­er in­door bath­room. Gaps in the wood let in cold wind that wors­ens his moth­er’s pain.

Un­able to se­cure grants due to a lack of land doc­u­ments and un­fit liv­ing con­di­tions, he is now ap­peal­ing to the pub­lic for help. He is seek­ing con­struc­tion ma­te­ri­als, gro­ceries, adult di­a­pers, or even the op­por­tu­ni­ty for a re­mote job.

“I just want to earn again,” he says qui­et­ly.

“But first, I need help mak­ing this place live­able for her,” he added.

Ram­per­sad re­vealed that his en­tire day is de­vot­ed to his moth­er, ad­mit­ting it some­times be­comes over­whelm­ing. Af­ter the first round of med­ica­tion at 4 am, he pre­pares his moth­er’s meals, helps her bathe, and ex­er­cis­es her fin­gers and legs to pre­vent stiff­ness.

He cleans the home, does the laun­dry and watch­es over her con­stant­ly—nev­er too far away, in case an­oth­er seizure strikes.

Ram­per­sad said sev­er­al years ago, while cook­ing at home alone, his moth­er had a seizure and her fin­gers got burned off by the stove. Two fin­gers had to be am­pu­tat­ed and she still gets pain up to this day.

“That is why I can­not leave her home alone and go to work. She needs care all the time,” Ram­per­sad ex­plained.

In the evenings when the air turns cold, Ram­per­sad said Ho­sein writhes in pain.

“Some­times I wake at 11 o’clock hear­ing her cry. The breeze comes through the holes in the wood, and the arthri­tis flares up bad,” he ex­plained.

He said over the past year her con­di­tion wors­ened. Once able to cook and move about, she now needs help walk­ing. She us­es adult di­a­pers most days. Ram­per­sad said the trau­ma of los­ing her fin­gers is al­so still there and of­ten she would spend time watch­ing her hands, gnarled from arthri­tis.

De­spite get­ting a Se­nior Cit­i­zens Grant, Ram­per­sad said the bills are too much.

“I ap­plied for a geri­atric nurse but they told me the house has to be in a cer­tain con­di­tion. Grants for re­pairs are out of reach too, be­cause I have no deed to the land. The own­er mi­grat­ed years ago and I have no con­tact,” Ram­per­sad re­vealed.

He added, “My fa­ther died about eight years ago and since then, it’s just me and mom.”

Be­fore this, Ram­per­sad said he worked at Rikon En­ter­pris­es and did free­lance so­cial me­dia mar­ket­ing. He dreams of find­ing a re­mote job again, some­thing flex­i­ble, so he can work while still car­ing for his moth­er.

He is al­so hop­ing for some help in com­plet­ing the un­fin­ished struc­ture out­side—the one his fa­ther start­ed, hop­ing it would help keep his moth­er safe from falls.

“It just needs some re­pairs, a kitchen and a prop­er bath­room. Then maybe we could get the geri­atric nurse to come in and help take care of her while I work,” Ram­per­sad said.

Even with the hard­ship, he thanks God for the op­por­tu­ni­ty to care for his moth­er de­spite the tri­als. He said gospel mu­sic keeps her calm and some­times mem­bers of a near­by church bring gro­ceries.

“It is hard for me to come out and ask and we don’t need much, just a few ma­te­ri­als, some pam­pers, gro­ceries, maybe help from a com­pa­ny will­ing to hire me re­mote­ly. Every day, I try but I can’t do it alone any­more. Mom and I need the help,” Ram­per­sad said.

Any­one wish­ing to as­sist Khem­raj Ram­per­sad and his moth­er can con­tact him at 1-868-752-0583. Do­na­tions can al­so be made to his Sco­tia­bank Ac­count: 61705-4003-009.


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