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A father's tender care


DADDY'S LITTLE ANGELS : Yanique (right) and Monique pose with their father. - Ian Allen

ROBERT Burley loves his nine-year-old twin daughters Mo-nique and Yanique so much that he has given up on many of life's pleasures for their sake.

"Since they born, I don't drink and drunk and I don't sleep out," he said proudly.

Burley who lives alone with his daughters near the beach at Alligator Pond in Manchester said that he has grown a lot of patience since they were born.

"I would get vex with people who said anything bad to me and get myself in trouble but I have to stay cool for them," he said.

Burley who jerks chicken, said that he could not get a job that would allow him to return home in the evenings.

"I never sleep away from them one night and they used to me being home all the time," he said.

The children who refused to say a word during the interview were content just to play in the sand.

"They give a lot of trouble but I still love them. Every minute I have to talk to them they always fighting each other," their father said, after quelling a squabble between the twins over a doll.

He said that the girls have their regular fights: "But, as soon as they hit the bed...they hug up tight. And when they wake in the morning they start the fighting again."

Burley said that when he first took the twins from their mother to live with him, many of his friends were against it. "They ask me how I am going to manage and say that I don't know anything about children because I never had any before," he said.

In his late 30s when the children were born, Burley said that raising them was a matter of trial and error. "I have to learn so I just do it..."

Burley said that he is admired by the more 'responsible thinking' persons in the community. "One time they were sick and I took them to the clinic and when the other women there see me they were so surprised that a man come with children that they give me way to go in first," he said.

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