The names of the people, institutions and places in this story have been changed or deleted at the request of the protagonist, whom we shall call Lazarus, to protect his privacy. In a preface to his story, he said, "I will tell it to you. Although it is unbelievable, it is the gospel truth. So ugly it is."

Lazarus was born one of 12 children to a poor family in rural Jamaica. He was a brilliant boy so, in 1961, he and a female classmate, the top students in a class of more than 40, got documents to sit scholarship examinations. His classmate took the exams and passed, but Lazarus' papers mysteriously disappeared without a trace. His dream of going to a government secondary school was never realised.

Determined to get a solid education, Lazarus went to work with a Chinese man. He saved enough money to pay his way into a private high school in 1966. He had no time to tarry, so he doubled his efforts and passed six Jamaica School Certificate subjects including mathematics and English. As a result, he got a 'good-paying' job at a reputable company in St Catherine.

His mother pressured him to leave the job, where he said there were many unexplained accidents. Nonetheless, he pressed on and saved his money. When it was enough, he applied to and got accepted at a college in the Corporate Area in 1968. Prior to his departure, he had a talk with his father, which left him very puzzled.

Strange question

"Somehow, my father took me aside and said; 'Lazarus, mi bwoy, you nah go come to nuttin inna dis yah world yah, yuh know!' To this I asked him, 'Why not?' Then, he pounded his head with both fists as he uttered, 'Yuh madda! Yuh madda! Yuh madda! Jesus Christ!' I had no idea what he meant, so off to college I went," he said.

On the first day of classes a female Trinidadian lecturer asked Lazarus what kind of religion his parents belonged to. When he told her she asked him skeptically, "Is that what they told you?'' Lazarus found this question quite strange. His sojourn at college lasted only one year, as he got mysteriously ill. By this time, his entire immediate family had relocated to the Corporate Area.

When he recovered, he got a job at another reputable company and subsequently moved out of the family home. The relationship between Lazarus and his mother became strained as she rejected every woman he had ever dated, including the one from an eastern parish who had two sons for him. For reasons unknown, the young woman refused to let Lazarus' mother see the children, opting to hide them from her.

In 1971, Lazarus left for a convention and a wedding in the United States (US), but decided not to return to Jamaica. Initially it wasn't easy.

Lower-paying job

"Before my marriage, I had no green card and was forced to take a lower-paying job. Also, in 1974, at the urging of friends I did do the US high school equivalency and passed it with a very good grade (point average) that could get me in any college.

"In 1976 I was married to a beautiful Jamaican girl. By the following year my wife was pregnant. One night, she felt a push from behind and she fell. By the next morning the baby broke in two pieces as it came out of her. Now, my own mother and four sisters were elated."

And the events of his life got even more interesting. By 1978 he started to have visions, including an invitation to go to a particular religious denomination. He refused to go since he was brought up in another. After a second vision, he still did not budge. When his wife had a similar vision, he heeded the call and went.

"Upon seeing me the priest exclaimed; 'So, you are the Jamaican holy man that they are trying to kill!' I said, 'What?' Then he went on to say, 'The Lord saw your plight and has made a way to save your life and that is why you were called'. Now, my father's words and the lecturer's words started to make sense," he recalled.

After years of questioning and studies, he was baptised in 1982. Since then, he said, he has been having "accurate visions of many events before they occur", such as the one he got in 1991 when his father was living in Alabama and he in New Jersey.

"One night, in March of that year, I had a dreadful vision. I saw a black casket floating in the stars with the name Joseph written on it. I went to work and told my boss in the personnel office. He ordered me to punch out and go to Alabama, so I left that same day," he recollected.

"When I got to Alabama the following day, on seeing me my brother exclaimed, 'You nuh hear what happen to Papa?' To this I asked, in amazement, 'What?'"

His brother told him their father, Joseph, had a heart attack while Lazarus was in transit on the train, and was in hospital. Lazarus rushed to see him. He was "looking quite good and sitting up". He wanted so much to talk with Lazarus, but his wife, Lazarus' mother was at his father's beside. When his father realised that she was reluctant to leave the room, he gave Lazarus a signal.

Revelation

"The next morning I went to him alone and now he opened up," Lazarus said. "He said it was my mother who took the paper away in 1961 because they knew I would excel in high school and she did not want that. He said as they saw that I was planning for college something was done to stop me spiritually and that was why he said, 'Yuh madda! Yuh madda! Yuh madda! Jesus Christ!' to me." Joseph died shortly, days after the revelation.

There were 'things' that were happening in Lazarus' family that he apparently didn't know about, or perhaps was naive about. He regarded himself as his 'mother's right hand' because, though he was the third child, he did business for the family, his mother making use of his calculation skills.

"My mother was quite OK with me. The only strange thing was that she insisted that I leave the (St Catherine) job. She thought the money was too good for me. My mother's sisters all loved me for being the family help. This was why I could never understand the sudden hatred that drove her to evil," he said. Somewhere along the way, it would seem, jealousy for two main reasons crept into his mother's heart.

"The female lecturer at college was incapable of convincing me something was wrong. When I left college my mother was pleased since my earning power was now diminished. Funny, but my wages after (after I dropped out of college) was about 50 per cent less that what I was making before," he explained.

Gift of discernment

In retrospect, Lazarus said, "As a child I had no idea of my place in (a certain) circle. Now, all my sisters support my mother's effort to put me under. The truth is that after she found out I became a (convert) she went to 'a man' - and requested my death. My story is the gospel truth. The last time I spoke to my mother she openly threatened to kill the four boys that I fathered if it's the last thing she does in this world."

But why would his own mother want him and his four sons dead? He surmised: "She knows the family history, that it is most likely that one of them will be like me, spiritual and somewhat brilliant. Since 1865, all the holders of the gift (of discernment) have been males. So my mother's thinking is that, should she kill all four boys, it will be over."

paul.williams@gleanerjm.com