- Dennis CokeHome-made fruit wine, the pride of Ena Hanchard.
Avia Ustanny, Freelance Writer
AT home in Marshall's Pen, Manchester, 81-year-old Ena Hanchard is chief cook and wine brewer, because that's just the way she wants it.
A frenzy of home-cooked meals, plus a festival of unusual condiments and home-made fruit wine (for which she has received gold and silver medals from the Jamaica Cultural Development Foundation) emerge as the hours pass by. Then, there is church. She is active, too, in the Anglican's Mother's Union.
Born May 29, 1919, the retired principal keeps butterfly busy.
And, with her culinary talents, she has developed another not-so-common one; a natural flair for friendship, gathering people to her like bees to the honey pot -- a skill not unrelated to her talents in the kitchen.
"Come make yourself a cup of coffee," she says as she stays busy making breakfast for another guest; and there we are pouring water from her shiny, aluminium kettle into China -- thin and pretty.
We immediately feel at home and after serving another of her specialities -- guava cheese -- she sits and begins, for us, the tale of childhood and people, remembering each like beads on a favourite necklace.
Ena was born at Redwood in St. Catherine (a little district where they break into the post office often now, she says). "I worked weekends at the Haddad store. Papa said that was not good enough for me so, he sent me back to do my Third Year. I taught as a monitor, then as a supernumerary, a probationer and finally as a trained graduate," she said.
Four years after graduating as a trained teacher, she became principal of her own school. That school was Marley Hill Primary in Manchester. It was a dilapidated church school when she started in 1957.
"I spent nine years there. The school was so run down that I had no option but to ask to move to another," she recalled.
Officials who came to her aid at that time included Member of Parliament Ernest Peart and Parish Councillor Winston Jones. The new school was built and became a model in Manchester, with enviable programmes in industrial arts and home economics.
She made it her business to learn and pass on her knowledge to the children by taking courses in leather craft and other industrial arts.
"I learnt to use the chisel and saw. I was the only female in my group. I still have the tools and books," she boasted.
Also on her book shelves are tomes on wine making, a skill which she has developed and which has won her many awards.
Ena has also kept the friendship of students, several of whom still journey from far off places to visit her.
For her there was no separation between home and work and she brought students home to spend holidays. The affection was returned.
"They brought me naseberries, sweetsops... anything they had in Marley Hill they brought me," she said.
It was hard to leave her students and move onto her next challenge, the Norwich Primary School, in north-east Portland.
Under her tutelage there, the students became among the leading dramatists and dancers.
"The other schools used to be afraid of me in Festival. The school also collected many honours from the 4-H club," she said.
Ena soon became chairperson of the parish festival committee. Neighbouring schools must have felt relieved when she left the area after 15 years.
During her time at Norwich, a teacher exchange programme in England provided another opportunity to broaden her experiences and collect more friends. At the Lester, Uplands school in that country she gained an adopted "Mom and Dad" who, although now in their 90s, still communicate with her.
And she continues to hear from her past students. Thomas Parker sends a card at Christmas, gives her gifts and photographs which are now lovingly preserved in an album at home.
"A lot of people say they have not got anything out of teaching. I have got. Just the joy of seeing children come up in the world and take their place," she said.
Ena enquires about her favourite students as for her friendship is a ritual -- a natural one -- a path as clearly marked as the one at her Mandeville home.
"I still go back home. Papa's (a shoemaker) and Mama's (dressmaker) tombs are still there and I go back to paint the tombs at Christmas," she said.
Ena never did marry, but says, "I am never lonely. I am always occupied doing something -- even more than I should do. At night, I've usually had a full day and I give God thanks for each day of my life," she said.
A plaque by her kitchen door says:
"Count your life by smiles
Not tears
Count your age by friends
Not years."
"I can't tell you how I have gathered so many friends," she quips with a smile, getting ready to prepare lunch. She cannot tell, but we certainly know the reason why.
