Mary

Mary was born in British Guyana in 1931. She believes we make our own happiness. Today she is 92 years old. Mary was married for 65 years before her husband passed at 95 years of age. He was a good man whom she cared for until he went into hospital for two months and passed away.  

Mary met her husband as a bridesmaid at his brother’s wedding. They married a year after he completed teachers’ training college. He taught in Guyana. Together the couple raised seven children: five boys and two girls. Today one of their children is deceased, four live in Edmonton, one in Toronto and one in New York. They come by to visit her, but Mary says not often enough.

Her oldest daughter sponsored her parents coming to Canada. Arriving from Guyana, where English is spoken, Mary adjusted well. But the cold weather of Alberta was challenging.  Her approach to cold is to forget it, or she suggests: tell yourself what you’ll wear to beat the cold. She found trees without leaves in Canada a mystery. Without their leaves, trees in Guyana are dead. She was surprised trees sprouted leaves and grew again in spring. Mary loves Canadian autumn when leaves change colour.

Mary believes independence from Britain was good for Guyana. There were restrictions for the Guyanese under British rule. The colonial habit changed with Independence but politics remained corrupt in Guyana, just as they are in Canada Mary states. Mary misses a freedom she recalls when Guyanese people celebrated every culture’s main holidays.

Mary did not work outside her home until her last child was ready for kindergarten. At home she sewed and baked wedding cakes for the community to help support her family. Her mother desired Mary to be a nurse but she could not tolerate the sight of blood. Mary did eventually become a trained caregiver to older adults here in Edmonton which she really enjoyed. The sequential loss of her husband and beloved son over the last few years has taken a toll on Mary who is now oxygen dependent.

Mary enjoyed travel. Her favourite trip was to South Africa. She admires Nelson Mandela who endured hardship to promote change. Another highlight in Jerusalem was riding a camel. She enjoys reading Prime Time, a senior’s paper.
She reflects, the move to Canada was good but in her heart, Mary will always be Guyanese.