Gareth Manning, Staff Reporter
Eulalee Jarrett smiles as she recalls her life journey. - Photos by Gareth Manning
GROWING UP was not the best of times for 50-year-old dressmaker Eulalee Jarrett. In fact, it was rough.
In a bid to escape the rustic poverty of the Westmoreland countryside, her single mother migrated to the city with her three children to find work. But the shimmering gleam of the Kingston life brought very little change.
Upon reaching Kingston, Eulalee was sent to live with her mother's sister.
"We were living all over the place and I never got much schooling because nobody never used to send me to school," she told The Gleaner as she recalled her story from her home just off Maxfield Avenue.
The constant moving and eventual relocation to St. Catherine with her aunt, made for some of the worst years of young Eulalee's life.
Abused
From as early as seven years old, Eulalee was working in people's homes as a domestic helper and on banana and citrus farms in St. Catherine, carrying heavy bags and bunches of bananas to be sold in the market.
"All schooling stopped when I was about eight or nine. I just work in the yard and in the field," she said with a sigh.
There was abuse - plenty of it - which came in all forms; verbal, physical and even sexual, while on the job.
"At about 12 years old, I ran away, back to my mother who was living in Town (Kingston) and she started having more children so both my sister and me, we had to stay home to help her with the children," she recalled.
When she was not at home, helping with her siblings, she followed her mother - who was also a domestic helper - around and helped her with the washing, house and yard work. When they were not doing that, they had to find their own work to contribute to the household income.
But going around with her mother never protected young Eulalee from abuse either. She continued to face it.
"Unfortunately, though I don't regret it, I got pregnant at the age of 14. So that created another barrier."
Her mother wanted her to have an abortion, but she kept her pregnancy and eventually gave birth to a son.
She moved out of her mother's house to live with her child's father, where she gave birth to another son. However, after a year and eight months, the child died.
Going back to school
Still only 16, Eulalee was drawn into physical abuse again. Her children's father began to beat her. But this time it was time to take charge of her life and she walked out and went back to her mother's house.
"I tried to put it (the abuse) all behind me. I think maybe because of all these things, I came to realise that those things weren't my fault and it kind of help me to get myself back together at this stage."
She joined the community youth club and the Workers Party of Jamaica in 1979, and started doing short courses to get herself some skills.
"I looked in The Gleaner and I used to see some short courses, like a six-week course and thing, and I started doing typing and things like that," she said, now lifting her head as she told The Gleaner her tale.
Still unable to finance her schooling, she spent her free time reading as her son grew up.
At age 45, she took a bold step and enrolled in what was then called the Jamaica Movement for Advancement in Literacy (JAMAL) - now Lifelong Learning.
"... and I went to Tarrant Baptist Church. When I did the test at Tarrant, the teacher said I did not need to be in the JAMAL programme because I was much advanced. So I look at myself and I said: 'Bwoy, it look like I can achieve something better' because, even though I never got the schooling at the time, by me trying to help myself I can see that I can move on," the humble Eulalee said while nodding her head as a little smile moved from cheek to cheek.
When the government's Citizens Security and Justice Programme (CSJP) came to her community, she seized the opportunity to better herself. They were offering residents the opportunity to pursue a limited number of subjects in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations (CSEC) and she made herself available.
"I say, bwoy, even though I am this old, I am still going to try it because I wanted to do the CXC for a long time and me couldn't afford it because all kind a problems arise financially and, when they advertise the thing for the community, I said I was going to do it, and I started the class," she said.
This was an opportunity for 49-year-old Eulalee. She sat the English exam and earned a distinction.
"I was just trying something. I wasn't confident that I would pass or anything. I was just trying something," she said. In fact, Eulalee didn't even bother to go for her results when she heard they were out. After hearing that most of her younger classmates had failed she thought her result could be no different.
Never too late
"When I see the one, I say thank God, because I didn't know how I did it, but I did it," she said triumphantly.
Eulalee's recent achievement has convinced her that it is never too late to get an education. Now that she has conquered CSEC English, she is moving on to mathematics this year, while simultaneously pursuing a course in Early Childhood Education through the Heart Trust/NTA. Next year, she wants to pursue a certificate in social work and eventually a bachelor of science degree in the same subject area.
She isn't leaving her children behind though. After serving four years in prison, her son has joined the church and is pursuing the subjects he never passed while in high school, while working hard at his blossoming musical career. Eulalee is also playing centre stage in her grandson's life and, through her guidance, he recently earned a place at Kingston College.
"If you cannot read, I don't see why you should be ashamed, especially if it is not your fault ... It wasn't my fault why I didn't achieve what I didn't," Eulalee said.
"If I continue this way, I can pick up a good paying job. I can be more marketable to help myself and help somebody else. So, is not like I do the CXC and bwoy I just try it; I doing it because I think that there is a future in starting at this stage. I'm not dead as yet. My grandson told me: 'Don't you know that life begins at 50?'"
gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com
