{"id":106,"date":"2016-10-06T11:46:48","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T11:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dominicahistory.org\/2016\/?page_id=106"},"modified":"2016-10-06T11:46:48","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T11:46:48","slug":"story-time","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dominicahistory.org\/2016\/story-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Story Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nana’s Story\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

A Children’s Story by Kelly-Anne Joseph and the Create Caribbean team.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

My grandma Magdalene is turning 100 years old tomorrow. I am very excited. My Nana is my favourite person in the whole world. Every year, for as long as I can remember, my mum and I would drive up to Delices and spend every birthday with her at the nursing\u00a0home.<\/p>\n

\"historygraphics-03\"For the first time ever, grandma told me what she wanted for her birthday. \u201cAll I want for my 100th<\/sup> birthday is for you to know about my ancestors, my mother and father and my life as a young girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was confused and so I asked, \u201cBut Nana, don\u2019t you want a party?\u201d Nana looked at me and smiled. \u201cI\u2019m 100 years old sugar, I fall asleep while taking a bath, I won\u2019t make it through a party.\u201d I threw my hand up bursting out in laughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlright Nana, anything for you, I would love to learn about my family and your past.\u201d Nana nodded and fell asleep.<\/p>\n

\n

Next morning, I woke up at 6 a.m, I could not wait to go see Nana. I rushed into mummy\u2019s room waking her. She yelled, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong Magda?\u201d<\/p>\n

With a smile as big as the sun, I exclaimed, \u201cIt\u2019s Nana\u2019s Birthday! It\u2019s Nana\u2019s Birthday!\u201d she shook her head and shot back \u201cI know Magda\u201d \u201cLet\u2019s go see her mum, Now!\u201d\u00a0Mummy threw her hands up, surrendering, and got out of bed.<\/p>\n

I ran to the car and mummy followed carrying a box, nicely wrapped in her hand. \u201cThat\u2019s for Nana\u201d I thought to myself.<\/p>\n

On the way to Delices, I thought of all the cool things that Nana did as a little girl, I got even more excited. When we arrived,I quickly grabbed my chair and sat next to Nana, she looked different, she looked energetic. Maybe the thought of telling me this story makes her happy, I said to myself.<\/p>\n

I was so excited, it felt more like Christmas to me when she began. \u201cAs you already know, I was born in the beautiful village of Delices, the name originated from the French word d\u00e9lices<\/em> meaning delight, I was the granddaughter of a run-away slave and my grandfather was a slave master.\u201d I gasped \u201cReally, Nana?\u201d \u201cYes\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife was tough for my mother who was raised right after slavery ended, but she tried to give me everything. My father was a descendant of one of the colonial families from England and I did not really know him.\u201d\"historygraphics-01-1\"<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father was not in our lives and so we had to fend for ourselves. My mother was a farmer and so every Saturday since I was 9 years old, my mother and I would make our way out of Victoria, cross the White River and walk all the way into Roseau passing many villages along the way, to sell food and walked all the way back when we were done.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"history-graphics-07\"I was shocked, \u201cNana! Delices is so far\u00a0from Roseau! How on earth did you walk all that way, while carrying food?\u201d Still in shock, I patted Nana on the back, recognizing how hard she worked. She replied, \u201cWe had to, Sugar. That was the only way we knew how to make a living.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was in awe as Nana continued her story.\u00a0\u201cIt was hard work, but I enjoyed it. I made friends along the way, people were nice enough to help us carry our load and some people were not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean, Nana?\u201d I asked. \u201cWell,\u00a0the unkind people took our load and ran off, most likely to sell as their own.\u201d\"history-graphics-05\"<\/p>\n

“Well that was not very nice. Did things like that happen often Nana?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,” she replied. “People were generally nice and helpful. The people who stole were lazy and did not want to work, they waited in the bushes then attacked. They usually stole meat from travellers. Come on Sugar, stop interrupting. Let\u2019s continue,\u201d she commanded, but smiled all the same.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cVisiting hours end\u00a0in ten minutes,” a voice called.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s time already!” I thought to myself.<\/p>\n

Nana continued, “On the way to Roseau, we stopped in different villages, to rest and refresh ourselves.\u201d \u201cWhere did you stop Nana?\u201d I asked. \u201cPerdis Temps, Pichelin, Bellevue Chopin\u201d \u201cWow, I know all those places Nana!\u201d I shouted. \u201cthe roads were not as good back then so it was very difficult to get to some places, some areas were merely tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Nana, were people in the town, different from people in the village?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a way, yes, they were much more civilized or so I thought at the time, especially those who came to buy the food from us. They were fair in complexion, dressed well and had money. In my child\u2019s eye they were superior. And so they came to buy our food at the Old Market.”<\/p>\n

“Do you know where the old Market is, Magda?\u201d Nana asked me.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf Course Nana, it is opposite the Royal Bank on the Bayfront\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s right Sugar!\u201d I smiled and looked at the clock. It was 2 minutes till closing, I was worried that Nana would not have time to tell me everything.<\/p>\n

She saw the worry in my eyes and said \u201cDon\u2019t fear Magda, we can finish the story another day.\u201d<\/p>\n

I grinned, \u201cI love you, Nana.” As I looked up, I saw the nurse approaching.\u00a0It was time to go.<\/p>\n

\"historygraphics-02-1\"On the way back to Roseau, Nana\u2019s story was running through head, and as we passed through different villages, I reminded mummy that Nana passed here on her way to selling food.<\/p>\n

After the tenth village, Mummy shouted, annoyed, \u201cI know Magda! she told me the story as well.\u201d I stayed still for a while, and before I drifted off to sleep, I requested from mummy that we go see Nana tomorrow, before she could reply I was asleep, dreaming about Nana’s story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nana’s Story\u00a0 A Children’s Story by Kelly-Anne Joseph and the Create Caribbean team.\u00a0   My grandma Magdalene is turning 100 years old tomorrow. I am very excited. My Nana is my favourite person in the whole world. Every year, for as long as I can remember, my mum and I would drive up to Delices and spend every birthday with her at the nursing\u00a0home. For the first time ever, grandma told me what she wanted for her birthday. \u201cAll I want for my 100th birthday is for you to know about my ancestors, my mother and father and my life […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicahistory.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicahistory.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicahistory.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicahistory.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dominicahistory.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dominicahistory.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108,"href":"https:\/\/dominicahistory.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/106\/revisions\/108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dominicahistory.org\/2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}