By Eulinda Antonette Clarke-Akalannene
From childhood I wanted to be a nun, A nursing one
So, at 18 when Enoch Powel invited me to come to England,
to train as a Registered General Nurse and work in Britain.
I left Barbados and came to the Motherland.
The land I’d learnt about, Glorious England.
going there was an exciting adventure for me
because I wanted to travel, and the world to see.
*
At school, I’d read about Oliver Cornwall and Henry the VIII,
Queen Victoria, and Shakespeare.
and acted as Mark Anthony in Julius Ceasar.
I recited English rhymes from my school reader.
I preformed poems by Robert Southey and Wordsworth.
and gustily sung traditional British songs with great mirth
Songs like, Rule Britannia, Britannia Rule the Waves, and John Peel.
Oooh! how British I did feel.
*
My bedtimes stories were by Charles Dickens and Enid Blyton.
I thought I was well prepared for the Motherland, sweet England.
I dreamt of daffodils and visualized soft snow on my skin
and I believed that I was ready to meet my English kith and kin.
*
On the day of arrival, the sun shone brightly,
and I disembarked the plane swift and spritely
but it was freezing cold and frosty.
I could not feel my nose nor ears, I thought I had lost them,
they were still there, but now stiff and frozen,
and my fingers and my toes had chilblains on them.
*
I saw long houses with smoking chimneys
I thought these buildings were bakeries,
But they are houses joined together in terraces.
unlike Bajan houses that are detached structures,
and the only chimneyed edifices in there were bakeries.
the buildings were black like those in Charles Dickens stories.
The colour was caused by Smog, a mixture of smoke and fog.
Since then clean air zones were introduced, the buildings have been cleaned,
And their true colours are now seen.
*
As a first-year student nurse in the hospital, named Derby City,
my monthly pay was ten shillings and pounds, forty.
That may sound miserly, but it was enough for me
as I lived in the nurse’s home, and all my meals were free.
So was water, heating, and lighting,
and the laundering of my uniform and mufti were all free to me.
Sister Burns, the Home Sister, who looked after me,
and the other student nurses who were Irish girls, were friendly,
especially as I like them, belonged to the Catholic fraternity.
*
Things are not always what they seem to be,
I knew about England, but the English knew nothing about Barbados nor folk like me.
I was asked if Barbados was in South Africa or part of Jamaica.
*
A patient asked me if I lived in a tree, and I replied jokingly,
In 1955 Princess Margaret visited Barbados, and she stayed in a coconut tree.
The patient was not at all pleased with me
and reported to the ward sister that I insulted royalty,
the sister reported me to the matron, and she punished me,
by insisting that I worked until 5.30 instead of finishing my shift at half pass three
*
Another patient asked, where my tail was hiding,
I told her if she looked carefully, she would see it wagging
I moved my derriere into a little jiggling
all the patients craned their necks expecting to see a tail wiggling,
and looked disappointed when they saw nothing moving.
*
In the street, some people grinned at me, instead of smiling
I thought this was how Derby locals smiled, though it was not charming,
but I practiced in my mirror and perfected grinning
and grinned back at anyone who grinned at me,
the grinners responded with a look of shock,
and eventually, the grinning stopped.
*
On the bus, people refused to sit beside me.
At first this made me very unhappy
but eventually, I felt like a princess, sitting separately
with a spare seat for my shopping right beside me,
while others crammed into a two-seater
or stood up and fell when the bus turned a sharp corner.
It was later that people begun to demand,
‘WILL YOU MOVE YOUR SHOPPING SO I COULD SIT DOWN?
I did not like this, not one little bit,
because I had got used to being a princess
and resented putting the shopping on my mini skirt dress.
*
A shop keeper dropped the change into my hand,
and a shilling rolled away and somewhere on the floor did land
We searched for the coin but could not find it.
So he refunded the coin, but this time in the palm of my hand he placed it.
*
Some old ladies grabbed their handbags when I neared them,
so, I did the same, this stunned many of them.
*
The nurses’ canteen menu board featured
‘Toad in the hole or Hot dogs’
I went to bed hungry and missed many dinners.
Because I could not face dining on such creatures.
*
One day, it was Bubble and squeak, I listened with great expectation
but no sound came from this fried-up combination.
*
I was invited by a friend to her mother’s house
to dine on spaghetti Bolognese.
When I finished the dish and was about to reminisce
The mother filled it up with more of the stuff
I was too polite to tell her that I had had enough,
So slowly, and painfully I finished that up
but she filled my dish again right up to the top.
I was taught to close my fork and knife when I finished eating
I looked for a knife, but only a fork and spoon were at the seating.
By now I was bursting and felt as though I would swoon
I must have turned green or really looked bad
Because the mother said ‘you look terribly sad’
I could hardly wait to get home to regurgitate
And still dislike Bolognaise till today’s date.
*
For fifty years I worked in the NHS
I started as a student nurse training in PTS.
And qualified as a Registered General Nurse, worked as Midwifery sister,
Senior Psychiatric Charge Nurse, and Health Visitor,
and Community Practitioner Nurse Prescriber.
In addition, I qualified and worked as a Social Worker,
and retired in 2007 as a Community Nursing Sister
*
I have had much fullfilment and happiness,
and I’ve turned racism, and prejudices,
into strengths, achievements, and successes.
Now retired, I am happy as can be,
I share life’s experiences in my poetry,
I have got good friends, a loving family.
I believe learning is a lifelong necessity,
and that life should be lived to its full capacity.
Composed March 20 2023
Photo: Antonette as a matron at Brymore Boarding school in Somerset
Liberation’s interview with Antonette is published in our journal Saturday 24 June 2023, available as a supplement of the Morning Star newspaper and mailed to our members.
A big thanks to Antonette for agreeing to the interview and our volunteer Adrian von Bonsdorff for conducting it.
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