90YRS AND STILL GOING STRONG, I AM BLESSED MY MOTHER IS STILL ALIVE

Aug 31, 2014 News

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By Ralph Seeram
 
The neighbor’s cow was dying, so the owner decided to call the businessman who supplied meat to the two hospitals in New Amsterdam, Berbice; the New Amsterdam Hospital and the Mental Hospital as it was known.
My mother saw what was happening, and realized that the dying cow was going to be slaughtered and given to the patients and workers at the hospitals to eat. Forget about health inspection, the health inspectors were susceptible to bribes. Yes, corruption is not an overnight thing in Guyana, it existed way back then.
Anyway my mother intervened with some choice Guyanese language and told the businessman that her husband works at the hospital and “you are not going to feed my husband with the sick cow”. So intimidating was she that the businessman decided to abort the deal and left with a few cuss words of his own.
Throughout her life I have always known my mother to be very feisty and would take nonsense from no one; whether it was politicians or customers in her shop. She was also a woman of great foresight.
This coming weekend my entire family will be gathering in Orlando Florida to celebrate her 90th birthday. She survived her two other sisters and is regarded as the matriarch of the entire family. Her siblings, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren, nieces, nephews etc (almost 100 persons) will be there.
Beauty Soman, “Aunty Beauty” or Miss Beauty as she was known to all in Smythfield, New Amsterdam was born at Blairmont Estate in 1924. To say she is a remarkable woman with tremendous foresight will be an understatement. She is a very industrious woman who explored every means to make money to maintain her brood of seven kids. During my lifetime, I recall her being a seamstress, rearing cows, pigs, and later chickens on a commercial scale, then on to a grocery store, all in Smythfield.
She probably had the distinction of having the first “kitchen grocery” in Berbice, if not Guyana. She practically converted her kitchen into a grocery, much to the consternation of neighbors. Nothing was an obstacle to her, and she would climb any mountain to achieve her goal. I think one of her greatest achievements was the establishment of Smythfield, New Amsterdam as it is known today.
Most of the residents of Smythfield may not know its history. Smythfield was a coconut estate owned by George Kardar. The residents paid a rent of $1.00 a month for the house lots they built their houses on. However Kardar could have also told you to take off the property if he so desired.
My mother realized this insecurity so she organized the residents into a Co-op Society to buy the house lots they lived on. She was a shrewd negotiator.  The 52 residents paid a $1000.00 for their house lots, 25% down, and the balance in 10yrs, payable in simple interest instead of compound interest as is the norm. By the way, a $1000.00 then was a lot of money.
What the owner of the estate did not know was that he was selling 4 house lots for $1000.00 and not one. My mother had seen the plan for extending New Amsterdam to Smythfield in an orderly development, known as the Barker Plan, which is why today Smythfield is a planned development while next door Angoy’s Avenue (Cow Dam) is Guyana’s largest slum.
She was Secretary of the Smythfield Coop Society while her husband was the President. No one else wanted the responsibility. Smythfield as it is today owes its existence to her. She was what would be described today as a community activist.
My mother had a lighter side also; a sense of humor if you will. One day an irate mother came barging into her shop cursing about how my younger brother was “interfering” with her daughter (meaning they liked each other), the “old girl” as we call her these days, told the woman “ I only chain my sluts, not my bulls” and that was the end of the matter.
Another time a male neighbor complained that our donkey, a stallion named “Saga Boy’ was making “love to his donkey” a mare by the name of Jenny. My mother calmly asked him he if wanted his mare for himself. End of complaint.
A section of the Smythfield road was very secluded and served as a lovers spot in the old days. One day this very pretty daughter of a prominent N/A businessman decided to go to the lovers spot with her boyfriend in her Berbice High School uniform. Too bad for them that my mother spotted them. She finished her chores, went to the backyard and cut out a “black sage whip” and interrupted the romantic rendezvous with a few lashes on the girl, asking her “is this you parents send you to school for”.
In those days even a stranger could have disciplined you, and you dared not complain to your parents, because it was going to be “licks again”.
Of course she asked me if I knew the girl’s parents. To save the girl from further humiliation, I told her I did not.
The “old girl” as I said had great foresight.  In the early 70’s she saw the political horizon for Guyana and decided to get her brood out of Guyana. She made her plans and by the 80’s they were all out of Guyana.
This weekend her brood, which includes a lawyer, computer engineers, civil engineers, environmental engineers and an assortment of other university graduates, will pay tribute to her. Their success in education is due largely to her vision some 40yrs ago. She has always stressed “education, education, education.”
Oh did I mention that I was the eldest of the brood, who felt the brunt of the discipline and who would never see ‘eye to eye” with her?  Yes I was the “hard ears” and “own way” one. Yes I got shut out when I came home late at night and had to sleep under the bottom house. She had her house rules; follow them or leave if you think “you is a big man”. Later I decided I was a “big man” and left the home. Yes, it was her way or the highway, but we all owe our successes to her, to a ‘tough old bird” as I describe her these days.
Ralph Seeram can be reached at email: ralph365@hotmail.comor on Facebook

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