Shattered but not broken - Westmoreland family clings to hope after cheating death during Melissa

When THE STAR team arrived in Farm, Westmoreland, six-year-old Jermonique Tomlinson greeted us with a radiant smile, her tiny voice filled with innocence as she politely asked, "Can you take my picture?"

Her simple request -- so pure and unshaken -- momentarily lifted the heavy air surrounding her parents, Jermaine Tomlinson and Kenisha Lewis, who managed faint smiles of their own. It was perhaps the first time their faces had softened since Hurricane Melissa ripped through their lives and took everything they owned.

But behind the smiles were eyes that told another story -- one of sleepless nights, loss, and survival. Standing on the patch of land where their two-bedroom home once stood, Jermaine had used a torn tarpaulin and scraps of zinc to build a makeshift tent. Beneath it lay what was left of their world.

Kenisha, advanced in her pregnancy, moved gingerly, her foot wrapped in a dirty bandage from a wound she sustained during the storm. Jermonique darted toward a soggy pile of debris and proudly held up her damp graduation photograph, the corners curling and stained with mud.

At only six years old, this bright-eyed child had witnessed horrors that could shatter even the strongest adult. While many children were preparing to return to school, Jermonique faced weeks -- perhaps months -- without a classroom, a bed, or even a proper place to sleep.

Jermaine's voice cracked as he recalled the moment everything fell apart.

"Tuesday was a wicked day for us, mi nah tell nuh lie. When it start the breeze never so wicked but then it get wicked, shove the house off the blocks. I grabbed a little bag and mi couldn't move and the zinc dem start fly. The house lean with mi. Mi have to go through the back door whe mi baton down because the trees dem drop and block off the front door. All three a we hitch up inna one little part of the house," he said, eyes fixed on the shattered remains of what used to be their home.

Realising death was closing in, he made a desperate choice -- to grab his daughter and run.

"By the time mi grab the baby and run out, mi babymother a run out too and a the roof dat a come down. As she make the last step out, the house flat and crumble up like patter and mi a tell you say the water tall and reach mi at mi waist," he recounted, his voice trembling.

Kenisha's ordeal was no less terrifying.

"Mi couldn't see but mi never wah Jermaine turned back for me because he was carrying our daughter. Mi all lick up mi side when mi foot stuck an' summen slice mi foot bottom. Everything that we have gone. We buy up everything for the baby on the way and it gone. We lose every single ting," she said, tears mixing with rainwater still dripping from her hair.

All around them lay the wreckage of their lives--broken furniture, waterlogged clothes, and fragments of walls that once echoed with laughter. Jermaine said they had tried seeking shelter with relatives during the storm, but the conditions were nearly as bad.

"Even the little money that we have gone in the storm. It rough. All the food that we buy up gone. A out here suh we sleep to eno. The mattress damp but we just gwan sleep. Where we were staying was on the wet floor so it better we gwan sleep out here. My baby all a wheeze and she a cough wicked," he said, brushing away a tear that refused to stay hidden.

He pointed toward the spot where two of his rams lay buried beneath debris.

"Mosquitoes deh here nuff and all type an insects. We light bush a night time. Mi is also a shoemaker but everything gone. The greatest thing is that we have life and we coulda lose it. If we did stay in the house we would lose it and we could lose it when we a run for help too because we couldn't see bitten except gray," he added softly.

As the words left his lips, little Jermonique shuffled closer, her small hand resting gently on her father's shoulder -- offering comfort in the only way a child could. Though surrounded by ruins, that simple touch spoke volumes -- Hurricane Melissa may had taken their home but it had not taken their love or their will to survive.