Louise Bennet-Coverley during her recent visit to Jamaica. -File photoTanya Batson-Savage, Staff Reporter
THE HONOURABLE Louise Bennett- Coverley, endeared to our island as 'Miss Lou', turns 84 today. If her recent visit to the island can be used as proof, she remains the poster child for laughter as the best medicine.
During her recent visit to Jamaica for the 41st Independence celebrations, The Sunday Gleaner caught up with Miss Lou to talk about her birthday. She quickly showed that her mind could shame a brand new tack, as she easily delved into her memories.
The foundation of her being is made abundantly clear, Miss Lou has loved life, her husband and 'black cake'.
She takes us on a hop, skip and jump journey from her sixth birthday to 2003, stopping at two of the most memorable ones. According to Miss Lou, though she has no plans this year, her birthdays have never failed to be special events.
"Well, most birthdays you have a birthday cake," she says with a laugh, giving the impression it is story time. "Yeah man dat was a ting! When I was a little girl, because I was an only child, my birthday was a ting mi dear." She explained that she lived most of her early life with her mother and grandmother, because her father died when she was only seven years old.
According to Miss Lou, when it was 'Bibs' (as she was fondly called) birthday, it was time for the entire family to celebrate. The celebration tended to extend beyond the island's shores since her aunt Lila, her mother's sister, would return from Costa Rica for the party. Miss Lou remembers the time her Aunt Lila, who would bring presents every year, brought a show bread made especially for her birthday.
"They would have cake and wine," explained a sparkly eyed Miss Lou, evidently still tickled by the memory, "but I wouldn't get any of the wine. But I don't min' that. The cake man, that's what I love, the cake."
GIGGLES
It was her sixth birthday, however, which became a family joke for years after an incident with her younger cousin 'Fatty' which is still able to send Miss Lou into uncontrollable laughter. Before she can even begin to tell the tale, she has to ask pardon to bring the giggles under control. She even has to confer with her friend Rose St. Juste if she should relate this gem. Fortunately, Ms. St. Juste agreed that the tale should be told.
"Fatty was a little cousin, one of Mimi's (her grandmother) granddaughter too. She was a year younger than I was and she was little. Now I myself wasn't big in those days, for my grandmother used to hold ma hand and say 'Ah wonder if this little hand will ever get flesh on it'."
"Well my dear, the day now, my birthday. Everybody had cake and then drink wine, and everybody toast Bibs and so... and they play music and me happy now man."
As Miss Lou speaks her body language helps to bring the story alive and she rocks from side to side to indicate her childhood delight. "When everybody move from the table now and
gone to sit down and the big people talking, guess what? Me go and me empty out all the glasses of the wine." Again she is unable to hold in the laughter and that famous burble comes bubbling forth once more. "Not much, you know, but everybody had a little left in their glass. Mi dear mi empty out the wine. And I start to dance."
Getting tipsy was not where this little incident would end. "And Fatty come to me," Miss Lou continues, "and say 'Bibs what 'appen'? An' ah jump over Fatty head." By this time, she is laughing so hard, she almost comes to tears. "Now that became a thing for years. 'Bibs jump ova Fatty head!' After that they were very certain to see that if anybody leaves any wine in their glass, that it t'row 'way. Oh gosh! I thought I'd never live it down."
Although not all birthdays could be this eventful, what they symbolised was the close family bond. From countless interviews it is clear that Miss Lou is very fond of her mother, whom she calls 'Love', a title which speaks for itself. She was also very close to her maternal grandmother Mimi.
"Mimi, my grandmother, I loved Mimi, you know. I used to say that Mimi's lap was the most comfortable bed I ever slept in. From I was little I would always jump into Mimi's lap at night and she'd tell me stories and all that. So, on my birthday now, it was always a little special day for us in some ways."
OUR FIRST MEETING
Interestingly, Miss Lou's birthday was also to be related to her marriage of Eric Coverely. Miss Lou first met Eric 'Chalk Talk' when she was 16 years old. In fact, he was the first person to pay her for performing her poetry. Their marriage would not take place until 1954, when they were both living in New York in the United States. Miss Lou went to New York in 1953 at her aunt's invitation and insistence. She left after living in London for several years, five years of which was spent working at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
She explained that though at the time she had not been preparing to go to the United States, the passing of the McClaren Bill forced her hand. The McClaren Bill meant that though she was living in London she would have to go on the list of Jamaican's requesting permission to enter the United States, rather than the United Kingdom list. The difference of being on one list or the other meant being granted entry the day after application or having to wait up to five years, Miss Lou explained.
According to Miss Lou, she arrived in America very excited about her prospects. "I got there (America) man and my aunty and her husband said 'Just make yourself comfortable and try to get the right position'. I come from England with all my credentials and what not." As she continues her story, it becomes apparent that these credentials would not work in her favour. "So I go to radio stations and I remember the first place I went to, with all mi credentials, hear what the man ask me? If ah can type," she laughs at the memory, though it must have been somewhat insulting at the time.
SCRIPTS
"By this time I was on programmes, you know. I had people typing my scripts. I said 'Certainly I can type, but right now, I'm not looking for a job to type, you can read and see what I've been doing resident artist on programmes'. I was doing a programme then called 'West Indian Guest Night', which had a lot of West Indians coming in. And a lot of people who became famous after started with West Indian Guest Night or 'Caribbean Carnival', one of my programmes that I used to have."
"My dear, I got to America, but I wasn't happy because of the business of getting a job, a position that you'll be comfortable in. And seeing that my aunty said she would look after me and feed me until... I said I'd wait a while."
Eventually, she took a job at Macy's on the telephone order board. However, at first go she was selling Jamaica, rather than taking orders. Her first attempt to take an order met with a language, or lingo, barrier when she was asked about 'barking dogs', which she thought referred to canines, rather than tobacco. She laughingly remembers that at the end of her first day she prided herself on her 30 orders until she realised she needed to get 70 orders per day.
Although she was soon able to meet her quota, the Macy's job did not inspire her passion and soon again it would be her birthday. It would bring an unexpected surprise. She worked a six-day week and made her birthday her day-off. "I was home washing my stockings and things and saying 'My God, if I were in Jamaica, my birthday...'
"So the telephone rings. I thought maybe it was my aunt or her husband, because they weren't there. I said hello, and this voice says, "I would like to speak to Miss Louise Bennett." And I said "This is Louise Bennett speaking. Who is that? Hear the voice, 'I am Eric Coverley.' Hear me, 'Coverley I used to call him by his last name Coverley, what yuh doin here? How yuh get me telephone number?' He said, 'Your mother gave me the telephone number, and I came last night and I'd like to come and see you'. I said 'I would love to see you too'."
Because Coverley was new to New York, Louise decided she should be the one to pay him a visit. However, she took much longer than expected, though a wonderful surprise awaited her. "The first thing when I got in, there was a lovely birthday cake." The cake had been baked by the woman Coverley was boarding with. Louise was evidently moved by the gesture and she spent the entire afternoon with him.
A GREAT SUCCESS
At the time she was working with the theatre group at St. Martin's church, for which she had put on a performance called 'A Day in Jamaica'. Eric would be staying for three months and she asked him to make a backdrop his artistry had earned him the name 'Chalk Talk' which he did. The show was a great success, but more than just great theatre would come from this reunion.
"If I counted that Christmas, it would have been 50 years this year, we were together, because we were married for 48 years, 3 months and two weeks. And, oh my God. The Christmas we had such a wonderful time..." Miss Lou goes on to explain that she and Eric spent the time visiting friends (he had by then got a job with the United Nations). However, since he was a rather gallant man, he insisted on following her all the way to her door, despite the inconvenience to himself because neither of them drove.
"Sometimes I say, Coverley, you don't have to come all the way to the door', but he says, 'I must see that you go home safely'." This state of affairs was not meant to last, however, and Miss Lou explains how it comes to an end, "So one night we're on the train now and he says, "Do you know that sometimes when I'm alone on the train going home I fall asleep? And do you know that sometimes I pass my stop, and sometimes they have to wake me when they reach the end of the line? I don't think I can keep up this business of your living one place and my living somewhere else. I think I'll have to ask you to marry me."
THE PROPOSAL
This was the astounding way in which 'Mas Eric' proposed. "I said this could never be!" says Miss Lou through her laughter. "At the time I want to laugh you know, but I'm pretending to be mad. I said, 'This could never be a proposal!' I said 'Coverly, this is how you
propose?'"
The two were wed, at what was supposed to be a small wedding at St. Martin's. However, what was supposed to be a party of 12 turned into a full church. She explained that the wedding and the journey to the honeymoon spot in Yonkers was far more tiring than she expected. "I was coming down the steps," she says, "and Eric was going before me, and he was holding my hand, and I just tumble down the steps. Fall down, yuh know."
Although she laughs at the memory now, the incident had seemed more traumatic at the time. "I said, 'Mi shoes heel wan fix!" She recalls, lamenting the broken shoe which resulted from the fall. "I wonder if this wedding is going to last?" Eric would have none of that, however. In awe, even after all this time, she recalls his response: "He said 'We will never part!' He really said that."
She explains that a year after his death she still feels his presence in their home, especially when "the old lady in the mirror" loses something. Because he came back into her life on her birthday, she sees Eric as a kind of birthday present, though they married eight months after the reunion. "It was a good birthday present for we were married for 48 years, three months and two weeks and we had spent 49 happy Christmases and thing. But he was ill..."
