“E
ven in England, I classed myself as a
“are you up now?” I would quickly have breakfast and then I
Jamaican with an English accent,” says
was gone for the day,” Lorraine reminisced.
Lorraine Givans, the chief support officer at Destiny Achieved Coaching based in
Travelling from Kingston to see her grandparents in
Ocho Rios, St. Ann Jamaica. It’s been seven years since the
Clarendon on the market bus with all the produce and the
business coach relocated to Jamaica in tow of her parents
livestock with the people was another fun adventure that
who retired to the island a few years earlier.
made an indelible mark on Lorraine because of what she describes as the “togetherness of the people”— something
Although born and raised in England, Lorraine maintains,
else that influenced how she matured as an adult.
“I always felt freer here.” That intangible was probably the most significant in her choice to leave a successful
“I remember literally sitting on the gear stick once.
career she was fully invested in for 22 years in London, sell
Sometimes mom would put you on somebody’s lap and felt
her home and re-establish herself in a place she had only
safe doing that. Looking back, it was a blessing. It showed
vacationed.
the difference in culture and just that togetherness of the people.
Childhood Memories “As they say in Jamaica, “From I born and have sense” I was
“As I got older it became more and more depressing to
never ‘for’ England, the culture nor the climate. I love heat. I
leave. That moment of having to check for your passport
love nature and being in the greenery,” she said.
and pack your bags for the return [to England] always brought on anxiety,” says Lorraine who seems to be the
“As a child I had hay fever and I remember that it never
polar opposite of her brother whom she describes as
bothered me when we visited Jamaica, but the moment
the ‘typical English man’. “He enjoyed the freedom and
I had to return to England, I dreaded the thought of the
adventures in Jamaica but when it was time to leave he was
[constant] itching and sneezing,” she recounted.
ready to go home,” Lorraine quips.
“We’ve been coming to Jamaica from I was two years old. This is home for my mom and dad and they wanted us to come and see where they were raised,” she explained. Her mom, a British Airways employee, enjoyed complimentary travel, which afforded the family annual trips that fostered the strong bond Lorraine developed with the island. Of the memories she cherished on those annual visits, Lorraine says gleefully, “I remember us getting to the airport, hoping and keeping our fingers crossed that there was a seat for all of us on the plane. Then landing in Kingston was always special, because, as you got off the plane you got that heat and then that natural smell. Because I didn’t eat plane food, our first stop was always KFC, then getting to my aunt and it was always night when we arrived so there was the sound of the crickets and bugs. That for me meant that I was home.” Those prized moments for Loraine were trumped only by the late night chatting with her Jamaican family and spending time with the neighbours. “In the morning my neighbour would come to the bathroom window and ask CIJ FALL 2018 29