Thompson: 'Mi born fi struggle' photos by Paul Williams

Sitting and chatting with Maxley Thompson, you will find that he is comical, entertaining, witty, and irreverent even.

Mischief twinkles in his eyes, except when he gets reflective. He's a storyteller himself, and the lines and wrinkles on his face speak eloquently of the vicissitudes of his 63 years.

The two and three quarters fingers on one hand are a constant reminder of the notion that fate has been very kind to him, because, on at least three occasions he could have already made the transition to the other side.

"Everybody did think mi did dead. Mi did dead. Mi nuh know how mi come back to," he says, making reference to the state that he was in after being hit with a piece of '2 X 4' lumber on the back of his neck by a much younger brother.

That was less than two years ago, and he now moves around with the help of a walker.

According to Thompson, he was in a bar in Seaforth, St Thomas, drinking, when he had an argument with another patron. His own brother, with whom he had a long-standing feud, came to the defence of the other patron. In the ensuing face-off, Thompson was clouted, causing him to collapse.

Two months in Hospital

He was taken back to his community of Hillside and tossed into his room, on the floor. The occupants of the house thought he was drunk. Eventually, he was taken to hospital.

Thompson: "Mi dey a (Kingston) Public (Hospital) for about two months, and dem say mi not going to walk again. And, dem send me to Mona Rehab, mi spend some time there, and then to a nursing home at Molynes Road. A whole heap a something mi go through."

All of this happened after he had moved back to Hillside, located at the foot of the Blue Mountains in St Thomas. That's where he was born. As he tells his tales, he points to the yard in which he made his entrance into his turbulent life. The house is long gone. Only the concrete foundation and a step leading up to tall trees remain.

He wasn't brought up on the property, but the lot of land is still his birthright, he reminds us. At an early age he went to live in Kingston. He got married, fathered a few children, worked as an autobody repair man, drove yellow and checker cabs, drank liquor here and there, indulged in the flesh, and gave some trouble.

Where he now resides is at the abandoned home where a 10-year-old boy was killed in the 1993 landslide that destroyed several homes and dislocated many residents of the community.

Incidentally, Thompson was at the house just minutes before the water, rocks and mud descended upon the village. He was to have slept in the same room, where the boy was, upon his return.

He went to a shop a few chains away, and within minutes the district was under siege. He could not leave the shop as debris and water were now rushing down the mountains.

Thompson says because the cloud had looked ominous, a woman told him that it was not wise for him to try to journey home the night.

Thompson agreed and went to get a cigarette before settling.

"Rain, rain, rain. A first mi see rain fall like that," he recalls.

Another near miss

When it was over, the front room and the veranda were wrecked. Two other children were washed out into the yard near the riverside, and the boy was dead. Thompson stood and looked at the spot where he himself could have been killed.

Déjà vu, it was. For, it was another near miss. Years ago, when Thompson used to take lumber to Kingston for sale, he hired a truck to haul the board. On the way back to St Thomas, the owner of the truck decided to take a woman's refrigerator back to the parish in the empty truck. The appliance was not secured to the vehicle. Thompson was expected to hold it in place for the entire journey.

Upon reaching a corner along the Grants Pen main road in St Thomas, the driver of the truck realised that it was in the path of an oncoming bus. The two drivers attempted to avoid hitting each other. The truck mounted the sidewalk destabilising Thompson and the fridge.

To regain his balance, Thompson let go of the fridge, "kotch" it with a foot and held on tightly to the side of the truck. "The bus rub and chop off mi finger dem same place," he recalls, "And the bus nuh stop."

Thompson was then rushed to the Princess Margaret Hospital in the parish.

'Born fi struggle'

"Mi born fi struggle," he says, adding that sometimes he has no money to go to the doctor to aid his slow recovery. But that has not dampened Thompson's bubbly personality.

He tells the story of the town rat and the country rat, and of crab louse, and makes it abundantly clear that the lyrics of a particular Beenie Man song are nothing new to him, for he was a beneficiary long before Beenie Man was born, and discovered such thrills. Remember, he was a town rat, who used to follow fat.

paul.williams@gleanerjm.com.

Thompson's hand was seriously injured in a traffic accident.