Diabetic mother of four struggles to “survive”

Colebrooke’s fiancé was detained after seeking to feed family amid lockdown

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Sheneka Colebrooke, 40, said she does not know where her next meal will come from.

She has four children, all under the age of 20.

On Easter Friday, her fiancé left their home on his bicycle in breach of the COVID-19 mandatory curfew  to collect a meal his mother had prepared for their family.

He never made it home.

He was detained overnight and released the following day with notice of pending charges.

“There wasn’t anything here,” Colebrooke told Eyewitness News.

“He went to get the food that Good Friday and he was going because we didn’t have water. We didn’t have anything here to be honest with you, so he went out on the road to try to see if you could of get a can of gas to make noodles, so the kids would have been able to eat.

“I have been struggling trying to deal with my kids where he see we didn’t have anything, he just showed compassion; and being my fiancé, he just tried to make sure his family was straight.”

Colebrooke was once a janitress at Naomi Blatch Preschool, but lost her job last May.

She has searched for work for nearly a year, but has been rejected more times that she can remember.

The struggling mother was married before, but the marriage nearly cost her life.

Her estranged former husband stabbed and killed a man she was with in December 2009, before turning the knife on her.

She was stabbed 17 times, and left with a punctured lung.

She said life has not been easy since then.

Asked how she and her children were able to survive over the weekend, Colebrooke said Stephanie St Fleur of Rights Bahamas ensured a bag of groceries was delivered to her.

“I need help and I am not ashamed to say it,” she said.

During a national address Monday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced the government will appoint a food security task force to ensure “every Bahamian and resident who needs food is provided with adequate” supply.

Colebrooke said she has been unable to access social services, though she will continue to try.

“I have been going through things and trying to make life better for me and my kids,” she said.

“Every time I would go on an interview they would ask me after the hurricane, like ‘are you a Dorian victim’, and I would say no. They would say they’re taking them and if anything else becomes available they would call back, and nobody called back.

“When you have kids and you have to provide for your kids. I don’t steal and I’m not going to go out there and sell my body, so right now, I am looking to see whatever I can get before the lockdown on Friday, so me and my family could have something. I am working on that right now and I am trying all I can.”

She added: “We’re trying to survive and live.”

Colebrooke also has diabetes.

Those with underlying medical conditions and the elderly are more susceptible to contracting the virus and have a higher risk of death.

Her near death experience in 2009 left her with permanent damage to her lung.

She said she worries about her risk of contracting the virus, but believes God has kept her alive to raise and protect her children.

“It has me even more worried,” she said.

“…If I get that (COVID-19) right now, I don’t know. Sometimes I have difficulty breathing, so I’m sure that would be a problem for me if I get it.”

If you would like to help Ms. Cokebrooke and her family, you may contact Eyewitness News or send us a message on Facebook.