The Editor, Sir:
Miss Lou has been my mentor from the days of Ring Ding. I was not fortunate enough to be among the many children who joined her each Saturday morning for what I call a session of cultural awareness.
Apart from the fact that my parents were Seventh-day Adventists, my mother's beliefs were Eurocentric, hence she had very little tolerance for patois and anything of African ethnicity.
This is where my ingenuity came in. In order to be an active participant of this renaissance that was taking place in Jamaica, I faked illness numerous Saturday mornings in order to be excused from church.
The television would then become my 'chapel' until Ring Ding ended. After that, I would spend some time praying that when my mother returned from church, she did not touch the top of the television set - it was hot!
It was from these Saturday morning sessions with the television set that I learnt about my cultural heritage and started to develop an appreciation for my Afro-Caribbean heritage.
It was from Miss Lou that I learnt not only to read and write patois, but that respect is due to a language that evolved out of our blood, sweat, tears, longings, struggles, and most important, out of our need to be a recognised people with dreams, aspirations and roots.
It was always my dream to meet Miss Lou, to shake her hand, to hug her, to kiss her and to tell her thanks for all that she did.
I am extremely grateful that I fulfilled that dream on a few occasions (in Canada). Miss Lou is a permanent star on my horizon.
Without her, I would not be the positive, self-confident person I am.
Although she is no longer here in the flesh, she has left us such a great legacy, that like Paul Bogle and Marcus Garvey, she will empower us forever.
I am, etc.,
AUDREY JEAN McLAREN
amclarenc520@rogers.com
barefacepickney@hotmail.com
Pickering,
Ontario, Canada
