E15 Clapton Park, Stratford, West Ham
Life in St Vincent, Curacao and Stratfordby Mary Viola Lewis |
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I love Stratford. Facilities, bank, post-office, everything is just at hand and I can just jump on the bus. The shopping centre is quite handy for me. I came to live in Stratford in 1980s. I love Stratford because the church is near and I don’t want to be late. Church of St Mathews, Dyson Road. I love them all that come, ministers, all of them I get on with. I sing in the choir and tell stories to the children. I was a Sunday school teacher for years. I have one son and one grandson. |
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I was born in St Vincent in the West Indies. When I was a young woman, I work for a living. I worked outside. Get the boys to pick coconuts off the tree, I pick them up. Shell them and make them into Copra, bag them and sell them. I wrote to my Uncle and said things are hard here with me. I want to go away. He said they were taking girls to work in Curacao. This picture was taken in Curacao, Dutch West Indies islands. I spent 3 and half years working and worked with a Dutch lady. Cleaned the house and she did the cooking. This skirt glitters in the sun. A Dutch man passed me on the way back from church. ‘Do you want a free lift ?’ ‘A, me’? He was a white man. ‘I take you home. I love you, you are very nice’. He was carrying a bucket of flowers to his wife. ‘You wear that’. I think he had a pin. He was speaking Papiemento or broken Spanish. ‘You think I’m stupid’, I said. That evening I went to Open Air cinema. A cousin of mine asked me where I got the flower. Don’t ask me no questions, I said. We dressed nice and my cousin take a picture of me. |
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