BY VERNON DAVIDSON Executive editor -- publications davidsonv@jamaicaobserver.com Sunday, May 24, 2015
WHEN the firesthat devastated large swathes of farmlands in the St Andrew hills started earlier this month, 50-year-old farmer Dave Holding did what good neighbours do -- help those whose property were being threatened by the raging flames.
Then, on the fourth day of his heroic gesture, Holding became the victim of one of life's cruel twists of fate -- his small five-room wood and concrete house on a plateau in Content Valley was engulfed by the rapidly spreading flames.
He lost everything.
Just looking at Holding riding his Honda 50 motorcycle along the narrow roads in the hillside community you could never tell that he's suffered such tragedy.
His calm, pleasant disposition masks the pain he feels at his loss.
"Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is still to come, what can I do?" he responds when the Jamaica Observer asks how he manages to maintain his composure.
"Mi can't really think right now, because if mi really think too much, mi nah go can hold myself together, mi jus a try bear it out," he adds.
Charred zinc sheets, blackened pots, the twisted dark shells of what were Holding's refrigerator and gas stove stand amid the rubble of the coffee farmer's flattened house.
He sifts through the debris, finding a spanner, a chain saw and a few other tools, all burnt to a crisp, and admits to the Sunday Observer that this was his first salvage attempt after the fire. more
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