VENUS ENGLISH – The story of phenomenal resilience after a lifetime of disappointment

TODAY she wears a dazzling smile, and her cheery laughter can be heard from many rods away. She has been gushing with excitement on just recently receiving her visa to the USA, and is now basking in the glory of glitzy high fashion, surrounded by many of her now grown children and the numerous grandchildren they have given her.

It is hard to believe that life was not always bright and beautiful for the 45-year-old Venus English. Actually, she is a woman now made happy and jubilant after having experienced many mishaps and gruelling disappointments, principally from the men who had fathered her children. They had all promised her ‘love on a two-way street’, which actually never happened.

I could not helped being overwhelmed by the story of her dark experiences, and I wept along with her as she reminisced on the days she describes as “dark and painful”. Today, her ten children are mostly grown and working. Some are still in Guyana, but some have migrated. Nevertheless, wherever they are, they always remember the struggle their mother endured to see them through, and they do everything within their power to ensure she is well fed and clothed, and is enjoying the luxuries of life.

The jubilant Venus English, who has had many years of suffering
The jubilant Venus English, who has had many years of suffering

THE VENUS ENGLISH STORY
As a young girl, Venus grew up under the wrath of a spiteful and abusive step-father, who was obviously in love with her mom, but certainly not with the young boy and girl she had brought into the world through the agency of another man. As a consequence, Venus and her brother were subjected to severe beatings for no apparent reason. Many times they were made to go hungry and ‘put out of the house’ by the step-father, who just felt they were too much of a burden.

When she was just sixteen years old, she decided she would no longer subject herself to this insufferable abuse, and so moved to Calcutta Village to reside with an uncle, where she was made to do domestic duties in his home in return for food and boarding.

A strikingly attractive female, she naturally blossomed into adulthood and became the apple of every young man’s eye and the envy of other young women in the village. Completely ignorant about true love, she first experienced the tug at her heartstrings at age nineteen, and moved to Haslington Village, ECD, to begin living with her first boyfriend and other members of his extended family. Throbbing with excitement, she thought romance was certainly in the air, and would cry during the day when her prince ‘Henry’ had to leave for work at the Enmore Sugar Estate.

She would greet his return in the evenings by running to meet him on the dam and jumping into his arms with glee as he whirled her around like a queen, showering her with feverish kisses. Romance was in the air all right, and she was surely under its magical influence.

Her first baby, Leroy, came along, and she was proud to be a mother. She felt this had made her all woman; but as the months rolled on, prince Henry began to consume alcohol in large quantities, and would not come home until the wee hours of the morning.

Although she had not much experience, she could feel something was amiss, and suspicions began to fester. “I loved my Henry dearly, and I knew he loved me too, but I was not stupid. I knew his feelings for me were changing, and he was always so drunk, staying out late and coming home with strange perfume on his clothing. He kept denying he was seeing anyone, but our romance was certainly not like before….”

Soon after, a pretty baby girl, ‘Thumbell’, arrived; and soon after, her Henry seemed to be getting more and more irritated and impatient with her and the children. He preferred to hang out with the guys that to help her around the home. She kept hoping desperately for a change, but things were just getting worse.

Then reality kicked in when she caught him all entangled in the arms of another woman at a rum shop, where he was raining feverish kisses all over the woman’s body. Crushed, she ran from the scene weeping in dismay.

“When I saw him in the arms of that woman, my whole world just caved in. I could not believe that the very man who whispered his undying love to me at night could bear to touch another woman intimately. I believed in him and trusted him so much that I almost died on the spot when I walked in on them at that rum shop…”

It was a difficult thing to do, but she had to leave him. Weeping inconsolably, she packed her bags and left with her two children to stay with her grandmother, Eugenia Williams, in Calcutta Village.

Naturally, with two children to maintain, she had to find work, since their father just ignored them after she left him. She began selling pastries in a snackette owned by her uncle Sherlock English, trying her best to make a dollar.

Wanting deeply to be loved and cherished, like any woman would, she fell for the ‘sweet words’ of another man who came her way. She soon found out that he, too, was only interested in sexual favours; and soon she was on her way to producing her third child. That father also soon disappeared after the baby was born.

Struggling to fend for three children now, with no assistance from their fathers, she fell into the arms of one man after the other, who all left their legacy behind (a child or two). Some of the fathers would send a little cash every now and then, but most of them just seemed to disappear from the face of the earth once the baby arrived.

“I know some people would say that I was stupid after what the second man did to me. But what was I supposed to do? The fathers gave me nothing, and even if I wanted to take legal action against them, they were nowhere to be found. I did not sleep with the other men because I wanted to. I had children to maintain, and men just don’t give their money freely. I was used and abused and just left to welter by the wayside.

“I gave birth to ten children, and while most of the fathers did not support them, I thank the Creator that He gave me the strength to do all the odd jobs I did to bring them up and give them proper education. Today, most of them are grown and are taking care of me.

“One thing I know for sure is that my experiences have made me a much stronger woman, and today I am enjoying the life I always wanted to,” she declared.

Venus now operates a thriving pastry business in Victoria Village, and she is even happier now that her older son, whom she fondly calls ‘Briggie’, is working in the interior and sending her large sums of cash regularly.

That aside, her other son Leroy is in Barbados, and doing quite well. He also never fails to send that ‘small piece’ for his mother.

Shawn, another son, works out of town, while his brother Shirwin is staying with relatives. A daughter, ‘Sedekia’, is staying with her dad in a Caribbean island, while Tanisa and Anisa are all grown girls who are living with their intended husbands.

The other children work around Guyana, and always remember the struggles of their mother. They make it their duty to visit and bring her gifts that set her smiling.

Venus loves the finer things of life, so her daughters always take care to dress her in the latest fashion. And she is quite an eye candy at forty-five. Presently she is dating, and this time it’s an intelligent, sophisticated and well-bred gentleman who loves her dearly and applauds her eventual successes.

Venus hopes her story serves as a motivation to other woman to resist falling prey to worthless men, and to always believe that the strength of a woman can eventually get her to that pinnacle where she desires to reside.

By Alex Wayne

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