At the crack of dawn, vil­lagers from Di­a­mond Vil­lage, San Fer­nan­do gath­ered at the home of their neigh­bour Randy Seep­er­sad and his moth­er Shirley Boysie, ea­ger to be­gin re­con­struc­tion of his home.

Randy is dis­abled, while his moth­er is vi­su­al­ly im­paired.

Work­ers from the Land Set­tle­ment Agency ar­rived prompt­ly and be­gan re­mov­ing the old ply­wood struc­ture. Trucks drove to and fro cart­ing away the de­bris while ju­bi­lant vil­lagers helped to load ma­te­ri­als. How­ev­er, work came to a mo­men­tary halt due to wa­ter scarci­ty but Kelvin Ro­main, CEO of WASA, swift­ly arranged a sup­ply, reignit­ing progress.

Amidst cheers and ca­ma­raderie, vil­lagers again lent a hand, clear­ing de­bris, eat­ing chow, and shar­ing laugh­ter un­der the scorch­ing sun. Hob­bling through the rub­ble, Seep­er­sad smiled with grat­i­tude.

“I’m over­whelmed by the love and sup­port,” he said, touched by the out­pour­ing of com­mu­ni­ty spir­it. He said thanks to every­one who ex­tend­ed kind­ness, reaf­firm­ing the vil­lage’s bond of com­pas­sion and care. “I didn’t know so many peo­ple loved me,” he added. Over the week­end, Seep­er­sad said he was con­sumed by fear and anx­i­ety that every­thing was a dream and he would end up home­less. 

“I thought peo­ple would break down the house and leave me with­out a home. Where would I put my moth­er? I could not be­lieve they were go­ing to re­build. I got fits on Sat­ur­day and I was so wor­ried, but this morn­ing when I saw the work start­ing and so many peo­ple here to help, I couldn’t help but cry,” he added. 

The LSA team mo­bilised by chair­man Wayne In­nis and Hous­ing Min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is be­gan work at 6 am. Seep­er­sad said he was over­joyed with the pace of progress.

Mean­while, his neigh­bour Avaz Mo­hammed said it was a priv­i­lege to be able to help Seep­er­sad and his moth­er.

“Randy’s moth­er is like a moth­er to me. I live across the street, and when my chil­dren were young, she used to take care of them,” he re­vealed. Say­ing Seep­er­sad had al­ways been a good neigh­bour, Mo­hammed said he was thank­ful to every­one who came to en­sure both Seep­er­sad and his moth­er could live com­fort­ably.

“It is the Almighty God who sent them to help Randy. No­body but God is re­spon­si­ble for his good for­tune, and we are pleased to help him in any way we can,” he added. An­oth­er neigh­bour, Nicholas Valen­tine, said every­one in the com­mu­ni­ty was hap­py to pitch in.

“We sort­ing Randy out. He al­ways was a good boy, so any help the work­ers need, we right here to help,” Valen­tine said. Seep­er­sad’s sto­ry, which was pub­lished by Guardian Me­dia, trig­gered an out­pour­ing of love from cit­i­zens both na­tion­al­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly. 

Seep­er­sad, 55, was born dis­abled. Five years ago, his moth­er lost her vi­sion. Since then he has been car­ing for them both. As their home be­gan tilt­ing, Seep­er­sad and his moth­er stopped cook­ing and be­gan de­pend­ing on rel­a­tives and friends for food.

Any­one want­i­ng to as­sist Seep­er­sad can call 767-6906 or 392-7004.