IT has now seemingly become a norm in Guyana that women who are in violent, abusive relationships tend to stick in such situations hoping that things will change.

For some, the situation never change, and they end up losing their lives; while others have been able to get out of such abusive relationships just in time.

The latter situation applies in the case of 21-year-old Bibi Nazarena Houston of 867 Zeelugt North Squatting Area, East Bank Essequibo, even though she lost her two children to an abusive reputed husband, who has also severed her right hand and three fingers from her left hand.

Speaking with the Chronicle’s Leroy Smith on Monday afternoon just before being whisked away from the Georgetown Public Hospital by family members and Human Services officers, Bibi Houston said she has been subjected to seven years of abuse at the hands of her reputed husband.

It is not difficult to see the beauty in the 21-year-old Bibi, an Amerindian and East Indian mixed female in the prime of her youth, who said she picked up with her now fugitive reputed husband, Richard Lord, when she was just 14 years old, and they shacked up and had two children over the seven-year period. Her children were aged two and five years old when their father killed them one week ago with his freshly sharpened cutlass used for cane cutting.

The drama all started after the young woman became fed up with the constant abuse she had been enduring for the past seven years, despite making several reports to the police, and she could no longer appreciate Richard’s presence around her.

She recalled that last Wednesday afternoon she went into their humble, all-in-one, zinc-walled home to inform her reputed husband that she no longer wanted to continue with their relationship, detailing her reason for the decision as the constant abuse he inflicts on her and her children.

As the words “I don’t want you no more” were uttered from her lips, she could see the man’s facial expression changing, so she proceeded to inform him that she was no longer prepared to live in the house with him, and that she was removing from the premises with her children.

That did her no good. The woman had broken the news to the man while he was under the influence of alcohol, and, based on her recollection, the man was nowhere close to being calm.

Bibi added that her decision was also influenced by Richard’s drinking problem, which in most cases occasions the abuse she has to endure.

Bibi said she called the police to come to the home even before the man went berserk. However, almost 45 minutes after that horrific incident, the police had still not showed up.

Bibi explained that she placed the call to the police while the man was in the toilet outside of the house. She quietly called her five-year-old daughter to go to the front of the yard and inform her aunt that she (Bibi) had called the police on “the man”, as she referred to him.

She said that when she looked into the man’s eyes, she realised that he was up to no good, and it was that which also forced her to take the precautionary measure of summoning the police.

Bibi said that when her reputed husband returned from the toilet, he ordered her to cook meals for him to carry to work. She told him frankly that she was not cooking anything for him to carry to work, and that if he so needed to take food to work, then he should cook it himself.
After informing him of her position on the matter of cooking, she had a change of heart and decided to cook for him, and she even informed him, “Alright, I will cook for you.”
But by then the man had already taken out his cutlass and had begun to sharpen it.

Bibi said that when he began sharpening his cutlass, she did not take it for anything, since it was something he would usually do, given his profession is cane cutting. The man then ordered his five-year-old daughter to take his clothing down from the line, since her mother no longer wanted him.

The little girl could not reach the line with the clothing, which is usually hanging in the house, so Richard pulled the line and burst it, so that the clothing could fall to the ground. He then informed the children that since their mother no longer wanted him, he was going to take his things and go away.

Bibi said she informed him that if he wanted to go he could go, since she and the children would live in the house.

As the argument between the two continued, Bibi’s mother came over to the house, having heard the initial message from the five-year-old that Bibi had called the police on the man.

As Bibi’s mother approached the house, she informed the man that she was going to call the police, since it was time for the advantage to stop. When the woman made that declaration, the five-year-old attempted to run out of the house, but the man immediately got up from where he was sitting, pulled her back into the home and locked the door.

Bibi said that when the man locked the door, all she heard was her five-year-old daughter making the sound “ouch” before falling to the ground. She said she did not take it for anything serious, and thought that the man had hit his daughter, causing her to lose consciousness. She never heard another word from her daughter.

Bibi said her reputed husband then turned his attention to her, and fired one chop, which connected to her arm. She immediately began screaming and hollering for her mother, informing her that she was chopped, she recalled.

Bibi said she does not know when in the chopping spree her two-year-old son was chopped.

The five-year-old girl would have turned six on August 21. The little boy had attained two years old on July 21.

Asked how she felt about losing her children, Bibi said she was not yet feeling the loss, since she has not yet returned home.
But she pointed out that when she gets home, she knows that the loss will hit home when she finally realises that her children are no longer with her.

On Monday, she expressed fear of returning home with the man still at large. However, she has been taken into protective custody by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.

This publication has been informed that Bibi is not the only family member to have been subjected to violence and abuse by her partner. She has four other sisters, and at least two of them are subjected to the same form of treatment by their partners.
Two days after the tragic incident involving Bibi, one of her sisters reported to this publication that her reputed husband hits her also, and that she has only recently had him locked up.

The sisters and their mother are of the view that one of the reasons they are subjected to violence and abuse by their spouses might be the absence of a stern male figure related to them by blood.

Bibi Houston told the Chronicle that the police took forever to arrive at the scene. She said that on that fateful day, she thought that her life “was done with”, as she pointed to the amount of blood she had lost and the length of time she had to stay at the location before she was transported to the hospital.