Jamaica Needs Nantucket's Help After Hurricane Melissa

To the editor: As difficult as it may be to focus on the problems of others when facing the kind of food and housing insecurity that Nantucket residents are experiencing, I ask that you take a moment and consider Jamaica and the extreme catastrophe that has befallen it. Because the island has been so devastated by Hurricane Melissa, we still don’t know the full extent of the damage but we can assume that Jamaica will need support for years to come.

Nantucket has a sizable Jamaican community. Time and time again, when my mother was at OIH and I had an old house to deal with, I received help from members of this vital community. My mother was very fortunate to have consistent care from a highly skilled Jamaican nursing assistant at OIH. When my mother was a resident at OIH, many of the nursing assistants were from Jamaica. And I dare say that OIH could not have functioned without that staffing. I learned from these nursing assistants how closely tied they were to their extended families on the island of Jamaica. I recall how one was despondent because she could not return to Jamaica for the funeral of a beloved auntie.

During the pandemic, Jamaicans were often among the essential workers who kept the island running. They were there for me and other customers when I regularly went to the downtown Shop & Stop. And when it finally was time to sell the house, they were there to perform essential services, like a desperately needed deep cleaning and the removal of furniture that was cluttering the rooms.

If you have Jamaican friends like I did when on island, then please ask them how they are doing. The amount of uncertainty about damage and death in Jamaica must be weighing heavily on them now. And remember that Nantucket, too, is a vulnerable island that may have to deal with its own weather disasters. Those of us who consider ourselves “island people” always have common cause.

Maureen Searle