Members of the Hickling family capture their special moment.
FROM JULY 26-31, another transnational family came together to renew acquaintances. Some came to visit Jamaica for the first time and taste such foods as bulla and pear, learn the dialect as well as enjoy the beauty of our island in the sun.
Four generations of the McCourtie family and their spouses (the name is also spelled McCourty) gathered at the Wyndham Rose Hall in St. James for the first official reunion since the family was established in the 1880s. A four-member committee comprising Ms. Cheryl McCourtie and Ms. Danielle Pulman of New York, Mr. Earlando McCourty of Panama and Ms. C. Helen Robertson of Jamaica, planned the reunion.
Benjamin and Sarah 'Meme' McCourty established the family at Success in Hanover. The deed for the land on which their home was established was on display at the reunion.
The couple produced three daughters, Guelph, Gray and Wilson and five sons. Grandsons Burt Mitchell of New York and Bill McCourtie of Orlando noted that these humble rural beginnings have produced a family which has migrated within Jamaica to Porus, Spanish Town, and Kingston and internationally to London, New York, Panama, Canada, and Africa and has produced agronomists, educators, librarians, civil servants, soldiers, accountants, entrepreneurs, medical doctors and nurses.
Dr. Annette Ervin Haynes pediatric oncologist, Professor Frederick Hickling, psychiatrist, both related to the McCourtie family by marriage, Dr. Janice McCourty, pathologist, and Mrs. Jennifer McCourty-Prime, registered nurse conducted a wellness seminar Your Total Health, which discussed topics such as common chronic medical illnesses, the relative incidence of cancer in men and women, and healthy lifestyle methods for coping with stress and mental health challenges.
Reunion participants also visited the Dunn's River Falls and attended the closing banquet at which the elders of the family were honored. Mr. Worthley Dodd McCourtie, Mrs. Amy Robertson, Mrs. Cathy Payne, Mrs. Lucille Grant and Ms. Aledrina Gray were the five family elders who were honored.
Mrs. Hilary Robertson-Hickling, mistress of ceremonies at the banquet, used the poetry of Louise Bennett to contextualise the experiences of the family members. She started collecting family anecdotes from members to write a book called Success Stories.
Throughout the reunion there were many informal discussions and re-acquaintance-building activities. The event's success has encouraged the family to hold another in two years.
