Mother was a beautiful, petite woman about 5’ 4” in height. Although she was dainty, polite and kind, she ruled the roost with a firm hand. What amused me most about her was that she walked with a swagger, and though a slight one, she had that “spit in your eye” look that let you know she brooked no nonsense. Looking back, I think she had to be to raise 12 children (eleven to adulthood). She seemed to be logged-on to her children whether they were at home in Cayman or wherever. She seemed to have some sixth sense about her children. Many is the time I’ve heard her say she was going to hear from a child when the next mail boat arrived. I can remember being excused from classes because of some sudden illness or injury and mother would be standing outside the front door waiting for me when I got home. I always knew that whatever mother did for me would make me well. All the medication that was available to her that could be bought in a local store were Musterole, Vicks, 666, and Casterol. If these were not appropriate, she would apply a concoction of herbs, teas and poltices of various kinds.

Mother always had a household maid or servant to help her. But the care of her children was never given to anyone other than one of her older daughters or sons. The servants were there to help mainly with cooking and washing and they were never permitted to enter the house, only the kitchen and the dining room. But mother supervised everything and she did all the baking and often times helped with cooking and washing clothes as well. Gardening was a source of great pleasure for mother. I remember there were 16 different kinds of fruit trees in the yard as well as an abundance of flowering and colorful plants. The walk from the front gate (at the street) to the front door was covered with white sand (from the beach) and bordered all the way on both sides with crocuses and lilies. It was a beautiful sight, especially at Christmas when fresh beach sand was hauled by whichever children were available and spread over the whole front lawn . It is my understanding this was a long established custom of bringing “snow” to our Christmases.

We called it “backing sand” and that was literally what we did. We would use these huge baskets (plaited from the native thatch palm) with attached strap about 3-4 inches wide also plaited as was the basket. Some of these baskets were made to carry over 100 lb. of sand. When you had put in as much sand as you wanted to carry, you would sit by the basket and pass the strap over your head so that the weight would be taken by the shoulders. To keep from choking yourself, you would slide your forearms through the strap. Getting to a standing position was always the big problem, but once you did your load would be distributed to the back, shoulders and forearms. On the way back to the beach we often- times filled our baskets with shaddocks ( a kind of grape fruit) or oranges to share with our friends on the beach who were also “backing sand” for their home. It was great fun and the Christmas “fever” was always high. When I was big enough I helped Sam do the sand-backing but once he saw I could handle the job he abdicated and left it to me. Of course it was not that big a job, that is if you started the hauling around October 1.

Getting back to mother, she did not wear any outer garment that did not come to at least her ankles. This was so whether she was washing clothes (that’s another story) or going to church. But we must remember she grew up and married during the Victorian era and this was the style of all the women then and they followed it until the end of their lives. She never required her daughters to dress that way. When she went to church or anywhere outside the home, her dresses were more like evening gowns. Although her hair was long, when she went out she would pile it on top of her head so she could wear a hat. One of my best memories of my mother was her wearing a snappy little straw hat very much like a man’s. I thought she was so very beautiful. One thing about my mother that I must have inherited was her preference for solid colors. She would wear a blouse of a color different from her skirt, but that was about the extent of her mixing.

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01/03/04
10:05PM
End of Installment Six