‘Daddy, mi aright now’ - Father happy after daughter’s life-changing surgery

Majesty Gardens resident, 62-year-old Alfred Dennis, is elated following his daughter Anna-Kay’s successful kidney transplant in the US recently, and he now harbours hopes of one day being able to travel to see her.

A tearful Dennis told THE STAR: “A di biggest relief I man ever get, enuh, because from she was here and sick and all dem thing deh. She left from here (to go to the US) with the sickness.”

As a pre-teen, Anna-Kay Dennis was diagnosed with lupus, a condition that led to kidney failure and two years on dialysis as she waited for an organ donation.

Dennis, now 24, received the life-saving surgery on January 11 at Westchester Medical Centre.

The gift of life came courtesy of Jennifer Buda, 35, who watched Anna-Kay struggle with her condition at their Kingston (New York) church.

The elder Dennis, a resident of ‘Back To’, said that even his daughter’s birth was a mystery.

Dennis told THE STAR: “That’s why I called her Anna, a because a inna mi hand she born. We deh pan di roadside deh suh, and her mother a come down the road with her inna her belly. She just go down and say the baby a come, so mi afi just catch her inna mi hand.”

Dennis told THE STAR that after learning that his daughter needed a kidney transplant, he unsuccessfully searched for a willing individual in Jamaica.

He told THE STAR: “Mi get two persons but when dem hear kidney transplant dem say dem can’t do that. So this person (Buda) help her because she is a Christian and dem go the same church and pray day and night.”

It’s been eight years since Dennis last saw his daughter and he said he would gladly make the trip to New York but his ‘age paper’ is hampering that plan.

“Mi nuh have foreign mind, enuh, but mi would love to go visit my daughter. Mi do everything, go RGD, send go Spanish Town fi try and get the correct age paper but it nuh work out. Her greatest request is for me to come see her,” he told THE STAR.

Since the surgery, Dennis said that they have kept in constant communication.

While trying to fight back tears, he said: “She call me and tell mi say ‘Daddy mi aright now, just pray for me’. She say: ‘Daddy mi afi work fi give you back all you spent on me’. Every time me talk bout it mi cry, Rasta. A life enuh, mi just glad say the person weh respect her and love her and care for her, deh a her church and see wah gwan fi her. Mi glad when she call mi and tell mi say somebody a go do something fi her.”

Anna-Kay is Dennis’ second youngest child. He also has a physically challenged son who uses a wheelchair.

Dennis said: “Dem last two ya is a gift. King Alphanso (his son) is a star in his school. Anna went to college and she pass and graduate. She want to be a chef, a dem ting deh she good at. She always say any time she get better she want to help herself to be a boss. I wish her the best inna everything. Wish you the best mi daughter.”