Christiansburg due to her father’s job. She attributes this moving around to giving her a broadened view of people of different cultures and backgrounds. Eventually she ended up in the capital and became a teacher herself after graduating from Tutorial High School. Ever grateful to her parents for their contribution to her as an individual, Yvonne says that they should come in for special mention. “They taught you honesty and integrity, and lived it”. She recalls how people would come to her parents home because of her father’s standing in the community to get letters of recommendations written. As a rule her mom always cooked extra because you never know who could drop in. Furthermore, they always had someone staying as her mother would always offer to keep other people’s children for a while if she saw them going through a rough time in their home. Some of them remember the kindness of her mother to this day she says, like the case of one woman now a nurse in the USA who still keeps in touch. She recalls that because of her similar habits her grandson Marcus (who calls her Boo Boo) asked someone recently “You hungry? Boo Boo give you food”. Yvonne admitted that as a teenager, taking care of others could be inconvenient. “You ask your mom why she picking up all these people. Why you have to leave what you’re doing and get some old man a cup of tea”. She emphasises that you have to respect people regardless of their station. “Those who give sunshine can’t keep it away from themselves”. Marriage and family Inevitably then, it was only natural that Yvonne would have a family of her own to take care of someday. She and her husband met at the home of the Canadian High Commissioner at the time, where Yvonne was having tea with his wife. It was this day that Sam who was attending Brunswick University of Canada on a scholarship, dropped in to say goodbye as he would soon be returning to Canada. Yvonne in a sari
At that time she was not interested, says Yvonne. But her suitor proved to be a determined one: “She (the High Commissioners wife) was giving me some books and she took my address, he AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011 GEM | 33