Interview with a retired Montserratian man (narrator), January 18, 2005:

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KP: What did you lose in the volcano?
Narrator: Well, I lost my house. Uh, the big problem for me and my wife was that we had, built this house, we had these five children and we built this house, two-story house and we converted it into a five guesthouse, a five bedroom guesthouse on top. When we built the house, the children, ah, young children, were susceptible to coughing and as a consequence of that we built each bedroom, had its own bathroom we didn’t want allow them to have to come out to the passage, to go to the bathroom. So with the house built with every bedroom having its own private bathroom it was very easy to convert it into a guest room where everybody had their own, you know, completely independent unit. And what happened, we turned these guest rooms, and it had turned out to be very profitable. It was near Plymouth and it was, we didn’t cater, but we had this huge kitchen, uh, fortunately. And so, it was doing very good business. And so we decided we invest in a great inn as our retirement income. And so we spent a lot of money re-shingling, putting in new ceilings, putting refrigerators in each room, television in each room, re-tiling, a lot. And [laugh] the eruption took us just before it was finished. So all of that investment in redevelopment was just down the drain. Gone, it was gone down the drain. And, ah, it had looked to be such a sound, simply business that we, we uh truly ah, had, that were depending on that as retirement support for my wife and myself. So, we just lost it…

Interview with an older Montserratian woman (narrator) originally from the United States, January 18, 2005:

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Narrator: I feel so sorry for, the people who, (4 second pause) yea, ya know, whose land and, and everything they owned is in the danger zone. And I particularly—a—and and was destroyed—and I particularly feel sorry for the, the people who, who kinda sacrificed and went away and they worked hard. Like in, in New York or Boston, or in England. And did k—did whatever work they did until they could collect social security and, and uh, retire. And then they came back here to build their nice comfortable retirement home on their family land. And then they poured all their savings into that, and then their nice comfortable retirement home and their family land got completely erased. And um, they’re too old to start over. And…they, all they have is, and they didn’t have insurance. Or if they did, th—most the insurance companies bailed on them. And so all they have is their little social—their little pension and their little social security, and that’s it. I really feel sorry for those guys. Whether they went away and they did it, or whether they stayed here and they did it, it’s the elderly people, that, that because young people can start over anywhere. Really, it’s not easy, but you can. But it’s those guys that I feel the most for …maybe it’s because I’m becoming one.
MG: hehe
Narrator: Slowly but surely, I can feel it happening.
MG: No, no, you’ve got plenty of time.
Narrator: (chuckles)

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