Storm cut off side chicks - ... Now relationship stronger than ever

Hurricane Melissa didn't just rip the roof off his house, it also ripped up Ricardo's* entire side-piece network.

With no cell signal, he has been unable to make secret phone calls or send and receive sneaky messages.

"Mi caah reach nobody," he admitted. "Melissa mash up mi whole phone book. Every distraction gone quiet one time."

But while the storm wiped out his distractions, Tanya*, his long-time partner, swears it has made their relationship stronger. Now, they can't get enough of each other, she said.

Their once-cozy, two-storey home in St Elizabeth is now a wreck. The upstairs bedroom is just an open concrete slab staring straight at the sea, with torn zinc sheets flapping like broken wings every time the wind shifts.

Downstairs, the couple now sleep behind a bedsheet nailed over a doorway. They share the space with three neighbours who have been left homeless after the Category 5 monster tore through Jamaica on October 28.

"Upstairs was fi we little sanctuary," Tanya told T HE STAR. "Now is breeze, heat, mosquito, everything... and no moment fi wi self."

Ricardo confessed that the blackout hit him harder than he expected -- not the heat or the darkness, but the sudden, eerie silence of his phone.

"No light, no breeze, no signal... mi cya reach nobody," he said.

Tanya couldn't help noticing. They have been together for more than a decade, and for the first in a long time, it felt like the silence around them was finally working in their favour.

"Imagine that!" she exclaimed. "A storm affi come fi cut off him side contacts and give mi back mi man," she said.

"Melissa never only tek roof. She tek excuse, too."

Hurricane Melissa slammed Jamaica with devastating force, levelling districts as it moved across western Jamaica. At least 45 deaths have been blamed on the storm. Additionally, the authorities said more than 190,000 structures were either damaged or destroyed. In Tanya and Ricardo's community, residents are slowly picking up pieces. The couple says this storm stripped their home and their relationship down to bare essentials. Tanya said they've been talking more than they have in years.

Ricardo agreed. It struck him that Tanya has been a constant in his life, and was at his side as they attempted to navigate their darkest hour yet.

"When tower down and whole place dark, mi realise is she still beside mi. Storm humble mi, man," he admitted. "It show mi who deh pon mi side when everything else cut off."

Melissa hit at a time when they were trying for another baby. Before the storm, they had quietly decided to expand their family.

"Mi always want three," Tanya said. "Mi heart ready. But now we no have no roof fi even house one."

They, however, admit that anything is possible, given the fact they now can't seem to keep their hands off each other.

According to Tanya, before Melissa, the last time she recalled having sex with her partner was sometime in July. Now, they make love at least five times per week.

Still, Tanya said intimacy matters now more than ever.

And with the roof blown off, their "private time" happens on the open second floor -- just them, the ocean breeze, and a swarm of mosquitoes.

"Storm slow down di plan," Ricardo said. "But we still want di family grow."

Like so many in the parish, they're also out of work. Before the storm, Tanya stayed home with their children. Ricardo, a lifelong fisherman, lost his income the moment the waves swallowed his boat.

"Fishing a di only ting mi know," he said. "When sea mash up, man haffi just wait till it calm."

While some predict a baby boom after the storm, obstetrician-gynaecologist Dr Garth McDonald is cautious.

"It's far too early to speculate. We wouldn't have the early pregnancy numbers yet," he noted.

For Tanya, it felt like life had circled back to remind them that the same rain that once sheltered their beginning was still capable of teaching them how to hold each other through the hardest seasons.

"Rain start we, rain test we," she said. "And now another storm fix we."

But for Ricardo, the wreckage only highlighted what had survived. "Melissa cut off every link mi have," he said. "Only one connection remain strong."

Tanya added, "And the best part," she said, "is that connection, it work without service."

* Names changed to protect identity.