Deborah Rampaul
Avia Ustanny, Gleaner Writer
AT AGE 20, Deborah Taffe of Kingston got married to Peter Rampaul, an attorney-at-law and teacher of the same parish.
It was a dream come true. She was finally living the life she dreamed of with her childhood sweetheart. She met him at age 14 and says that from even then she knew she had found the love of her life.
The couple had three children. First came Christina, then Sheena and finally Stephen.
Disaster struck, however, shortly after the eighth birthday of their eldest child. Peter Rampaul was killed. One Sunday morning, the father went to buy fish and never returned. Hours later, his wife threw herself on his bullet-riddled body in disbelief.
She recalls, "His face was bashed in, his chest shot out and his body riddled with bullets." The lawyer had run into a roadblock, where he was severely beaten and then shot. To date his murderer has not been found.
His family was left bereft. What would Deborah, his widow, do? Should she migrate as she was encouraged to do? Should she remarry? The beautiful woman was to receive several offers. "I did have a lot of opportunities, but my soul is more important. I decided to work on my feet instead of on my back," she told Outlook.
It was tough going, however, for the young widow.
Struggle
Her first attempt at running a business failed, because money was stolen from the business and the perpetrator migrated. There were nights when the young family had no supper.
Deborah says she remembers crying one evening when there was nothing in the kitchen to give her children to eat. Her oldest daughter, Christina, was the one who hushed her and who "took a piece of stale bread, toasted and shared it up" and gave her mother a cup of tea to drink.
Deborah would not be down for long, however.
In a short while, the mother was back on her feet, determined to succeed. She targeted the pharmaceutical industry, where she thought, she could make a career in sales.
Eleven years later, she has done well. In the period since the death of her husband, Deborah Rampaul has become a super saleswoman and is currently a medical representative for Lasmed/Lasco. She has won a total of 15 awards for superior performance in pharmaceutical sales.
Her awards include 'Sales 'Representative of the Year' for Medi-Grace Limited, this she received in 1997 and the Kodak award from Kodak International in the same year.
Before this, she collected the 'Special Recognition Award for Service and 'Dedication Beyond the Call of Duty' from Genus Pharmacy, the 'Annual Industry Award' from the Pharmaceutical Society of Jamaica, the 'Sales Award from Mead Johnson' (Bristol Myers Squibb Co.) and another, the 'Award of Excellence' from Medi-Grace Ltd.
In 11 years, she has come a great distance.
Deborah was unemployed when her husband died, as she had left her job after the birth of her son, her last child. After crying for weeks and finally deciding to do her best to raise her children on her own, in Jamaica, finding a job was not the easiest task.
She often cried while job hunting. But, in one interview, when she was rejected, she told the manager involved that it was his loss. Intrigued, he called her back for another interview. In a short while she was working.
Self-motivated
The woman, who would soon prove to be a super-achiever, tells Outlook, "I am a self-motivated person. I depend on no one and nothing to motivate me. I do everything to the best of my ability or not at all."
She also adds that, on the job, she sets the highest standards for herself.
Deborah Rampaul is now a fully- qualified medical sales representative. After Peter Rampaul's death, she was first employed at Mead Johnson where, after her first six months on the job, she received the award for outstanding performance in pharmaceuticals.
Unfortunately, this job lasted only one year as the company closed down. But, she was soon employed at Medi-Grace where, again, in six months, she started collecting awards.
Deborah pursued a career as a medical representative, dealing directly with doctors. Years of successive overseas training programmes have qualified her for the top of her field.
At home, her children were learning to man the home front when Mom was away. Deborah was absent from home a lot. She spent two weeks out of every month away from home. Christina, the eldest, became a second mother to her siblings. When Deborah came home, often very tired, they would turn off the phones and make her breakfast when she awoke.
"We became closer because now we relied on each other exclusively," Rampaul now recalls.
Deborah is glad, for the sake of her family, that she fought so hard in the early years to keep their home. Several attempts were made to foreclose on her mortgage, but each time, a source of refinancing would come through.
Christina, now 19, is a medical student at the University of Manhattan. Sheena is a fifth form student who is about to sit her CXCs. Stephen, aged 11, will soon be taking GSAT examinations.
Deborah has also adopted two other children into her family - Yvonne and Tisha - mother and daughter. Yvonne, she says, was without a home and found out that she was pregnant. Deborah took her in and kept both mother and child.
Her passion for children, she says, is one reason why she has not remarried, to date, and also why she has not left the care of her young ones to relatives. She is now close, however, to someone who she has grown to love. Her other half, she says, is medical doctor Garfield Gibson. "I prayed for him," she says. "After 11 years of being alone, he was a gift from God."
The single mom says that, on the job, she does not see herself slowing down.
There is so much more to achieve. She believes that what she has done, other single women can do it too.
"When you realise that there is a problem in your life, you can use that stumbling block as a stepping stone.
"Your relationship with God is also most important. Also, try to love yourself. It is out of the love for yourself that you will develop the inner strength to create the life that you want."
The single mom enjoys jazz, walking by the ocean, watching football and tennis with Dr. Gibson, and picnicking with her children when possible. She still believes that life has much to offer, even though her first dream was snatched away so soon.
