2 adopted sons abandon mother
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Evelyn Joseph was a well-loved English teacher in her day. She taught in three different private schools in Chennai and was in demand for tuition classes.
Today at 62, Evelyn sleeps under a staircase at the railway officers’ quarters in Egmore and spends her day sitting on a cement slab outside the premises. Ask Evelyn if she would like to stay in an old age home and she vehemently declines.
“I am very content here. Don’t think I don’t have anybody. I have my two adopted sons. One son even gives me Rs 100 when I go to see him every month,” she says.
“It is shocking that the two adopted boys that she brought up have shut their doors at her. They are well settled and live comfortably with their families and all they can spare her now is Rs 100,” says Mr Roy Rozario, president of the Anglo Indian suburban front, who also works with the Southern Railways.
While the South Indian Anglo Indian Association gives her a pension of `150 a month, it is obvious that Evelyn, a spinster, can do with a little more.
Thin as a rake, missing all her teeth and dressed in somebody’s old nightgown, Evelyn also needs psychiatric help, say residents of the quarters.
Evelyn has been squatting in the premises since 1989, say the officers, who all call her ‘aunty’. “She is quiet and does not disturb anybody.
She has never asked any of us for favours, money or even food. She is extremely independent,” says the wife of a railway officer.
Evelyn’s adopted son Benedict said he had ‘family problems’ and could not take her in as she was deranged.
“As she is from our community, we tried to get her pension from the government. However they said she was not eligible as she did not have a ration card or voters ID.
There are so many old people who are living with their families and receiving Rs 1,000 a month as pension from the government. For destitute elders like Evelyn, the government should make allowances and not demand documents,” suggests Mr Rozario.
Comments
"One son even gives me Rs.
Mike
03 Aug 2012 - 23:14
"One son even gives me Rs. 100 when I go to see him every month".
It is not a big amount of money. But with only a small part of the story, it's hard to tell if its right or wrong. We don't know what kind of- reply
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