Paul H. Williams, Gleaner Writer

The newspaper is a most disposable product. Some don't even last a day. For, apart from its purpose to disseminate news and other useful information, it is used to do all sorts of things, and then discarded.

But, for Dave Nelson, a 35-year-old resident at The Golden Age Home, in east Kingston, the newspaper is the main material for his craft.

Dave: "When mi come here '97, some Japanese come here come teach me ... is not me alone them teach, but is mi alone continue it."

The 'it' to which he referred is the art of making crafts with newspapers. Over the years, he has been making a variety of crafts, such as an assortment of bags and hats, toys, trinket boxes, picture frames and fruit bowls, but he's not quite sure about what to do with them.

Dave: "Most of them mi give away, some of them mi have to burn ... Sometimes when tourist pass through, they buy one or a few pieces, but mi really nuh get them pon the market yet."

Broken spine

But why does he continue to make the crafts not knowing how to dispose of them? He has the skills, so why not? Yet, the main reason is to occupy his time while he sits in his wheelchair.

Yes, Dave is partially disabled, and has been since he was 21.

Dave: "In '93, mi goh help a old man do some work, and a building collapse pon mi ... We did a demolish a building, and we lick down three sides, and one side just collapse in and drop on mi ... Mi end up a hospital and stuff."

His spine was broken. And, as harsh as it sounds, it seems as though the accident was to put a brake on Dave's topsy-turvy life.

His mom, who is now deceased, left him, when he was very young, with his father and stepmother. He claimed they treated him badly, and so he went to be with an aunt in St. Elizabeth. But, the treatment meted out to him by her was no better. He returned to Kingston to live with his father's children. It wasn't a good idea either.

Dave: "When mi reach 19 mi did have an auntie who come from town and she give me hell."

So, when the accident happened in 1993, it was the last thing that could have happened to him. Not much help came from relatives. With no sensation in his left leg, he spent some time at The Mona Rehabilitation Centre, but it had always been a struggle. And there was more fire to come.

One night in June 1997, while he was in bed at his home, located in a politically-volatile, inner-city community, he heard shouts of 'fire! fire!' The house in which he and some other persons were sleeping was on fire, apparently set ablaze by persons who were of an opposite political persuasion.

Creative

He scrambled out, and over a fence, in his infirmity, to safety at a neighbouring property.

Through the intervention of local authorities, he was temporarily placed at the Golden Age Home, and he has been there ever since.

Making stuff from newspapers is his preoccupation, and he has become quite an expert.

The process starts by cutting the newspaper into small strips of about eight by half an inch. The paper is rolled diagonally on to a thin piece of pointed bamboo into a long, narrow funnel. The funnels are then pasted together into the desired shape and style.

To preserve the paper and the designs the products are sometimes lacquered, but because of lack of funds, they remain unvarnished for the most part, and they acquire a brownish colour as they age.

However, Dave does not spend all his days putting rolls of paper together. The man who left school at grade nine is also a budding playwright and writer.

He has written a 10-page story, partly based on his life, and is in the process of writing another. He completed one untitled and unpublished story of the travails of a disabled young man from a broken family.

It explores his challenges and his resentment towards his mom, who died at the end. Yet, it is also a tale of friendship, forgiveness and redemption told with simplicity, clarity and honesty. The story is enriched by well-drawn illustrations.

Sense of worthlessness

In describing how the public treated Dean, the partially-crippled, main character, Dave Nelson writes, "At this point, he began to feel a sense of worthlessness, and depression set in. He began to feel rejected because people did not see him as a human anymore, but as a menace to society." It is clearly a reference to how he was treated in the initial stages of his disability.

He continues, "As the days gradually turned into weeks, he continued to struggle with himself, trying to get from point A to B with great difficulty because he had to pull on his bottom, still trying to help himself though he was depressed." And, as if to purge his mind of the resentment he had for his own mom, he ended the story with, "he did not feel any hatred and resentment because he knew that his mom had gone home to rest with her maker".

For now, Dave is not yet ready to meet his maker; he's busy turning and twisting newspapers, perhaps mirroring the intricacies of his own life. He would love to find a market for his products, and would even teach primary school children how to transform these fragile units of information into beautiful works of art.

paul.williams@gleanerjm.com