Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va

With eyes closed and hands raised, There­sa Cum­mings sat in her wheel­chair and made a heart­felt prayer to the stat­ue of La Div­ina Pas­to­ra, hop­ing she could walk again.

She is one of many who flocked to the La Div­ina Pas­to­ra Church in Siparia on Good Fri­day, hop­ing to pay homage to the stat­ue in re­turn for a mir­a­cle.

Cum­mings said she’s been wait­ing to walk for 13 years but she was not the on­ly one who came look­ing for hope.

Queued up for hours, many oth­ers stood un­der the eaves of the build­ing in the yard of a church, hold­ing of­fer­ings of rice, oil, flow­ers and gold. On the street out­side, ped­dlers sold mar­ket pro­duce, goods, toys, clothes and oth­er items.

The streets were lit­tered with card­board box­es while scores of bedrag­gled chil­dren and adults dressed in tat­tered cloth­ing, beg­ging for alms.

This has been the first time in two years that the Si­pa­ree Ki Mai wor­ship was al­lowed but even though re­stric­tions were lift­ed, the turnout was not as grand as in pre­vi­ous years.

Bar­ber Sookoo Bridge­mo­han, who has been com­ing to the Church every Good Fri­day for 44 years said he was hap­py to be back to give “sa­cred hair­cuts” to chil­dren for the first time.

“I missed this for the past two years. This year it is kind of slow. I cut about 35 heads for the morn­ing so far,” he re­vealed.

His son Jared said: “There are a lot more beg­gars than peo­ple com­ing to church and it is a con­cern be­cause of the way they act. It is okay to ask for mon­ey, but some peo­ple are scared be­cause when they come to share mon­ey, these beg­gars would grab.”

Ger­maine Reid, who came from Port-of-Spain, said the pan­dem­ic had been bru­tal to many fam­i­lies.

“We just here look­ing for some help,” she ex­plained. She added, “This pan­dem­ic has been stress­ful and frus­trat­ing. It sent peo­ple crazy.”

Ra­mona Vic­tor, a coun­cil­lor,al­so came to share alms and was mobbed by a group of chil­dren who tugged at her cloth­ing ask­ing for a dol­lar.

Vic­tor said she too was ap­palled by the num­bers of peo­ple who came to ask for alms.

“Yes, we live in a chal­leng­ing time but from what we have seen here it is a clear sig­nal that we have to reach out and help as many peo­ple as we can,” she added.

Aaron May­ers, who came to buy pro­duce with his fam­i­ly, said the prices were high. He said he was not wor­ried about COVID-19 and was hap­py that the re­stric­tions had been lift­ed.

The fes­tiv­i­ties at the church are ex­pect­ed to ex­tend through­out the East­er week­end.

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