MEET 73-year-old Eleanor Sue-A-Quan, born Eleanor Spooner, the woman who has an opinion on just about anything! This petite lady would let nothing interfere with the activities she loves engaging in.

She doesn’t really fancy people who usually have no opinion. “You ever meet someone whom you spoke to and they don’t know anything? You ask them something and they’re like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know’,” she asked in a good-humoured tone.
Mrs. Sue-A-Quan is fun to be around, and the interview we did with her at her home on Robb Street was lively and provided for much amusement; and on a more serious note, much food for thought.
She was born and raised in Georgetown, and resided on Church Street, to begin with. Her family moved to Kitty when her dad got ill, and resided there until he passed away; whereupon, her mother, Mrs. Adelina Spooner, and three siblings, then moved to Regent Street.
She got married to Mr. William Sue-A-Quan 33 years ago, and has since been living with him on Robb Street.

Creating and Designing
At one time, Mrs. Sue-A-Quan did ballroom dancing, “Just like what they do on ‘Dancing with the Stars’,” she informed. And she was indeed good at it, because whenever the instructor was not there, she was the one who carried on the class.
She did a bit of acting in school, but wasn’t interested in that as a career. Nor was she interested in a career at the Guyana and Trinidad Mutual Group of Insurance Companies (GTM), where she worked for some time.
Initially, she wanted to become a nun. “I have always been fanatical about religion; but I became very ill — I was an epileptic when I was young — and they would not have taken me with that problem,” she recalled.
She eventually discovered her special interest in arranging flowers, and progressed to the point of becoming a florist. Decades later today, Mrs. Sue-A-Quan is still in the business of creating, designing, and decorating. “I like creating everything. I like designing and creating, and doing interior designing and decorating halls for weddings and conferences. I also do fabric painting, and I don’t use stencils.
“I just do everything. Even my furniture I designed myself. I can do a little bit of everything!” she declared. She believes she was able to develop various skills after her dad died and the family became very poor. “And my mother was one of those persons who thought that poor people must not pay to do anything. And on top of it, she wanted us to be excellent at what we were doing,” she explained.
Mrs. Sue-A-Quan recalled that her skills also probably came from her mother, who was artistically inclined. “For instance, if a vase was broken, she would not buy it back. She would tell us (the children) to find something to take its place. So we found a bottle and she would say that we can’t put a bottle on the table, so paint it and make it look like a vase.”
Mrs Sue-A-Quan also thinks that her interest in art was spawned by her inability to afford the things that she liked. “They were too expensive, so I had to try and make them. For instance, I used to buy real cheap cloth and turn out some fantastic styles,” she fondly recalled.
Today, she still decorates halls for weddings and does fabric painting. She even paints wedding gowns as well! “I have been doing the stage for 35 years. My mother was a seamstress, and a very neat one. So I think I got it from my mother,” she said.
Mrs. Sue-A-Quan had a thriving flower shop on Robb Street at the front of her husband’s electronics and radio store. “I am pleased with the work that I produced because no one has ever complained, not even once!” she said.

Underestimate no one
Mrs. Sue-A-Quan said no one, irrespective of their status in life, should be underestimated. You can never tell what can be learnt from such an individual, she observed.
She described herself as a very ordinary person who loves people. She is good at organizing, and she believes in the Golden Rule: “All things, therefore, that you want men to do to you, you also must likewise do to them.” She thinks that bad associations can spoil someone’s good habits; and she believes that one should always be honest about one’s feelings.
She related: “My mother brought us up to believe that you must always speak your mind, but do it respectfully. You must never be afraid — even if you are standing in front of someone great — to say what you think; but make sure you do it respectfully.
“If someone asks me how they look in a certain dress, and I don’t like it, I wouldn’t lie about my feelings. I would simply say I think it would look better on someone else.”
At present, old age and concomitant illness have imposed certain limitations on Mrs. Sue-A-Quan, but she likes to remain active. “I am still doing something. I am not prepared to be a living dead. I have to do something, because just the mere fact that I can’t do anything would kill me. I do all my work — cooking, washing, sweeping, dusting,” she related.

Loves children
Mrs. Sue-A-Quan loves children, and expressing her feeling about the ones who exist nowadays, she said a lot depends on how parents train them. “I see parents giving their ten-year-olds high-heels and all kinds of fancy hairstyles. Sweetheart, you’re not doing your child a favour by doing that. The thing is that parents give them too many liberties too early.
“I love children. I think they are such a gift. I feel that they can be a real joy and asset to you and to the community. But a lot depends on how they are trained.”
She is thoroughly against parents pressuring their children into becoming what parents would have liked to become. “They think they will realize their dreams through their children, but it doesn’t work like that,” she said.
Concluding, she said: “I have an opinion on everything, (but) they don’t always be right; and I don’t like people who have no opinions, they are boring. You MUST have an opinion!”