Zeia, son get a place to sleep

ZEIA FLEMMING has found temporary shelter but only to sleep at nights. A kind-hearted neighbour, June Foster, two weeks ago walked across to Flemming’s shack in the Coconuts, Pleasantville, the front walls of which the landlord broke down on January 17. Foster invited Flemming, 52, to sleep in one of her bedrooms, so that she and her son would not have to face the cold wind at nights.

Flemming, Foster said, is no longer considered a neighbour, but a family member. Flemming is still awaiting a telephone call from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) about an apartment, which she applied for six years ago. Her shack is on hilly terrain and Foster lives on another street at the bottom of the hill, about 20 houses away.

Every morning and afternoon they greet each other, Flemming holding her son’s hand and walking past Foster’s house on her way to take the boy to and from school. Foster said she read in Newsday of Flemming’s plight, especially the last incident on January 17 when the landlord knocked off the front partition.

When Newsday visited yesterday, the partition was on the ground. Every night after that incident, Flemming and her son, a standard II primary school pupil, would pick it up and lean it against the shack to block the wind.

Foster said, “And these nights and mornings are too cold. So I told Zeia to bring she and her son and sleep every night by me. She could stay as long as HDC take to give her a house.”